Numbers are all around us and we take them for granted. Who first invented them? How old are they, and how were they developed? How did they come to represent abstract, universal concepts? How do they vary in different parts of the world today? Who invented algebra? Geometry? Calculus? Zero? How do these ideas affect our daily lives?

This information-packed book uses clear language and over 130 illustrations to describe the basic principles of numbers - arithmetic, whole numbers, natural numbers, the concepts of zero and infinity - as well as the ways in which numbers have been used in art and other disciplines.