3
Understanding
Numbers, Big and Small
It’s All About Math! ................... 4
Zero ........................................... 6
Negative Numbers ................... 8
Place Value ..............................10
What’s the Point?.....................12
Counting in Hundreds .............14
Think in Thousands .................1
6
Making Millions .......................1
8
Brilliant Billions...................... 20
Really Big Numbers ............... 22
A Billion Billion Equals
a Quintillion!........................ 24
Galloping Googols! ................. 26
Great Googolplex! ................... 2
8
The Idea of Infinity ..................
3
0
A Short History of
Math and Numbers
A History of Numbers............. 54
The Birth of Math.................... 56
Unusual Numbers .................. 58
The Arrival of
the Calculator ..................... 60
Computing and
Big Numbers....................... 62
Special Numbers
A Piece of Pi............................ 64
Palindromic Numbers............ 66
Fibonacci Numbers ................ 68
The Golden Ratio .................... 70
The Challenge of Chess.......... 72
Chess People .......................... 74
Clever Cards............................ 76
Why We Need
Big Numbers
Statistics .................................
3
2
Counting People .....................
3
4
Big Numbers in Space ...........
3
6
Stacks of Cash ........................
38
Global Numbers ..................... 40
From the Big Bang
... to the First People .......... 42
Prehistoric Times ................... 44
Counting Days......................... 46
Your Amazing Body................. 48
Animals Count ........................ 50
Big Budgets, Big Movies ........ 52
C
ON
t
EN
t
S
Glossary .................................. 78
Index........................................ 80
