Numbers Man - Numberphile
video description
-Here's looking at Euclid- is a nod to -Here's looking at you, Kid-, from the film -Casablanca-, a staple of US pop culture.
In the UK, -Alex's Adventures in Numberland- nods to L. Carroll's -Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-; it too is a staple of UK pop culture.
Different cultures, different pop culture references; I think it's really neat to see that in book titles of the same language but different countries! :D
Date: 2022-04-08
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 9
Martin
Not really, no. His book is quite big and I've heard a lot about it in continental europe as you should have noticed from the different translations of it - only successful books are translated.
I don't see what your problem is with him having collected translations of his book. John Green (of vlogbrothers) is an accomplished author and has all of his books and translations too and if I had written a book, I'd want all translations too. I'm sure you get them for free anyways, why not have them?
reply
Not really, no. His book is quite big and I've heard a lot about it in continental europe as you should have noticed from the different translations of it - only successful books are translated.
I don't see what your problem is with him having collected translations of his book. John Green (of vlogbrothers) is an accomplished author and has all of his books and translations too and if I had written a book, I'd want all translations too. I'm sure you get them for free anyways, why not have them?
reply
kubarebo
Pray tell, how does it help said 17 year old to know who Euclid was? It's trivia, it's nice to know if you're into history of science/mathematics. Never mind that pseudo-historical -treatments- of history of science one gets exposed to in middle and high schools are hopelessly abridged, shallow and devoid of the human and contextual angles of the discovery process. Newton formulated calculus using geometry, quite importantly, but no one in my high school knew it nor looked at his original works.
reply
Pray tell, how does it help said 17 year old to know who Euclid was? It's trivia, it's nice to know if you're into history of science/mathematics. Never mind that pseudo-historical -treatments- of history of science one gets exposed to in middle and high schools are hopelessly abridged, shallow and devoid of the human and contextual angles of the discovery process. Newton formulated calculus using geometry, quite importantly, but no one in my high school knew it nor looked at his original works.
reply
kubarebo
I find some historical background in mathematics to be of entertainment value, but not otherwise necessary. It doesn't matter that someone named Euclid is known to have figured some things out. Mentioning Euclid was probably a waste of time and a mistake. It would have been more useful to better develop the taught theories, perhaps in better connection with how they are approached in modern mathematics. Knowing Euclid's name is trivia that doesn't help you any in dealing with the subject matter.
reply
I find some historical background in mathematics to be of entertainment value, but not otherwise necessary. It doesn't matter that someone named Euclid is known to have figured some things out. Mentioning Euclid was probably a waste of time and a mistake. It would have been more useful to better develop the taught theories, perhaps in better connection with how they are approached in modern mathematics. Knowing Euclid's name is trivia that doesn't help you any in dealing with the subject matter.
reply
kubarebo
Another nice book about numbers that I enjoyed a lot as a kid was George's Ifrah's -Les chiffres, ou, L'historie d'une grande invention-. I don't think there's an English translation, but there's a Polish one. I found his more recent, two volume work to be exceptional. The U. S. edition's volumes are titled -The Universal History of Numbers: From prehistory to the invention of the computer- and -The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer-.
reply
Another nice book about numbers that I enjoyed a lot as a kid was George's Ifrah's -Les chiffres, ou, L'historie d'une grande invention-. I don't think there's an English translation, but there's a Polish one. I found his more recent, two volume work to be exceptional. The U. S. edition's volumes are titled -The Universal History of Numbers: From prehistory to the invention of the computer- and -The Universal History of Computing: From the Abacus to the Quantum Computer-.
reply
MinecraftPhilia
So a man does not deserve recognition for the discovery of a mathematical concept? By your logic, when teaching someone about the Theory of Relativity, you should not teach them that Albert Einstein discovered it. You are basically saying that anything that could be considered trivia is not worth learning, since it does not deal with the matter at hand. I understand that I am, in a way, comparing apples to oranges, but my point still stands.
reply
So a man does not deserve recognition for the discovery of a mathematical concept? By your logic, when teaching someone about the Theory of Relativity, you should not teach them that Albert Einstein discovered it. You are basically saying that anything that could be considered trivia is not worth learning, since it does not deal with the matter at hand. I understand that I am, in a way, comparing apples to oranges, but my point still stands.
reply
Syksy
Awww, the Finnish name is so boring. It's just -Fascinating Mathematics-. Come on, couldn't the translators have come up with anything at all? Or just translated it straight from the British version? I guess we, or at least our publishers, are just too serious. Did they think people wouldn't want to read a book with title that sounded like a children's book?
reply
Awww, the Finnish name is so boring. It's just -Fascinating Mathematics-. Come on, couldn't the translators have come up with anything at all? Or just translated it straight from the British version? I guess we, or at least our publishers, are just too serious. Did they think people wouldn't want to read a book with title that sounded like a children's book?
reply
Neko
Suprised to here that the publishers thought England wouldn't know about Euclid. In America I've heard about him all my life, even if I don't know much more than -he did math-. Same with Pythagorus. I would definately know, if saw the title on a table with a mixed genre, that it was probably about math.
reply
Suprised to here that the publishers thought England wouldn't know about Euclid. In America I've heard about him all my life, even if I don't know much more than -he did math-. Same with Pythagorus. I would definately know, if saw the title on a table with a mixed genre, that it was probably about math.
reply
Doug
Here's Looking At Euclid is a funny title. Only disappointing thing is I still don't know what's in the book from this video. He spent almost the entire time talking about his writing process and journalism and almost no time on what's in the book. An example or excerpt would have been helpful.
reply
Here's Looking At Euclid is a funny title. Only disappointing thing is I still don't know what's in the book from this video. He spent almost the entire time talking about his writing process and journalism and almost no time on what's in the book. An example or excerpt would have been helpful.
reply
Wout12345
I speak Dutch too, and please let this be clear to any non-Dutch speakers: THIS IS NOT THE DUTCH PRONOUNCIATION! The pronounciation of -Getullen Ontredsild- (which is pure nonsense by the way) is about the same as wat he says in the video, like the guy in the top comments mentioned. :P
reply
I speak Dutch too, and please let this be clear to any non-Dutch speakers: THIS IS NOT THE DUTCH PRONOUNCIATION! The pronounciation of -Getullen Ontredsild- (which is pure nonsense by the way) is about the same as wat he says in the video, like the guy in the top comments mentioned. :P
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
