The book is the first in the trilogy which will bring you to the
fascinating world of numbers and operations with them. Numbers provide
information about myriads of things. Together with operations, numbers
constitute arithmetic forming in basic intellectual instruments of
theoretical and practical activity of people and offering powerful tools
for representation, acquisition, transmission, processing, storage, and
management of information about the world.
The history of numbers and arithmetic is the topic of a variety of books
and at the same time, it is extensively presented in many books on the
history of mathematics. However, all of them, at best, bring the reader
to the end of the 19th century without including the developments in
these areas in the 20th century and later. Besides, such books consider
and describe only the most popular classes of numbers, such as whole
numbers or real numbers. At the same time, a diversity of new classes of
numbers and arithmetic were introduced in the 20th century.
This book looks into the chronicle of numbers and arithmetic from
ancient times all the way to 21st century. It also includes the
developments in these areas in the 20th century and later. A unique
aspect of this book is its information orientation of the exposition of
the history of numbers and arithmetic.