it's ok | One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science

A wonderful gift for the curious child | One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science | George Gamow

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	• One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science George Gamow Dover Publications, 1988 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It remains one of the best popular science books ever published

When I was in high school, this was one of the books that was a must read among the "brains." Back then; everyone carried a three-ring binder with his or her books on top, so what book you were reading would be visible when you laid them down. The fact that reading this book was considered a status symbol is an indication of how highly it was regarded. This collective opinion was not unwarranted; Gamow is one of the best in taking complex scientific principles and rephrasing them into a form that is easily understandable.
Contrary to what the title suggests, the topics are not solely mathematical, the range covers cosmology, chemistry and thermodynamics. There are four parts with 11 subsections. They are:

Part 1 Playing with numbers
*) Big numbers
*) Natural and artificial numbers
Part 2 Space, Time & Einstein
*) Unusual properties of space
*) The world of four dimensions
*) Relativity of space and time
Part 3 Microcosmos
*) Descending staircase
*) Modern alchemy
*) The law of disorder
*) The riddle of life
Part 4 Macrocosmos
*) Expanding horizons
*) The days of creation

When it was originally published in 1947, this was one of the best popular science books ever published. Although the passage of scientific exploratory time has rendered some of the statements obsolete, it still ranks very highly.

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it's ok

i bought this book purely because some people had stated how much of an impact it was when they read it when they were young. i guess i am too old to enjoy it. i'll give this book to my nephew when he turns 12 and see what he thinks

A wonderful gift for the curious child

My father was stunned by the fact that while playing Monopoly I explained (in the wrong words) where and why my mother should place a 7th house. He raced up to the attic and came down and announced, "M***** look at this - this was my college book on probability and statistics. He intuitively understands expected value and the probability of rolling various numbers. " To cut to the chase I was presented with 1 2 3 infinity a week later. I don't know how much effect that on my career choice, there were other factors, but needless to say, 55 years later I still remember this and am ordering a copy for myself. It may or may not have driven me to as doctorate in mathematics, but it surely must have had some effect.

Eight may be a little bit early, but 10-12 certainly isn't it. Definitely give your child(ren) this book before he/she/they take Algebra 1.
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Amazing

Reading all the reviews of this book absolutely amazes me, because although I've never spoken with anyone else about it, I had the exact same experience with this book that so many have written here.

As a sixteen-year-old in a small midwestern town, I was perusing books in a local store when I ran across this one. It was so fascinating that I bought it, and it was the book that taught me how to really think. My love for reading and deep, critical thinking began with this volume, and I am forever indebted to Gamow.

This book is phenomenal for any teenager. I'm still amazed to see so many concurring reviews, as I only just stumbled on them now while looking up the history of one of my favorite authors. Highly recommended.

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~ 20 years ~ another personal experience with this book

It is really a great thing to see that this book keeps available after so many years (this book was written way way before 1988 as noted here), and it's also a joy to see so many positive comments on the book. This book is a beautiful piece of art work on sciences. As said, if you want to have your children into the world of science, try this book, I myself am a testimony.

My personal story with this book is very long. It went back to my high school time in 1980's in China. I was a normal kid just like a typical high school student in China in that era - love to play around but bound by the endless homework and exams. I was lucky enough to get good scores in all my science programs without much trouble, but didn't really have much passion on sciences. This book came to me accidently when I looked into one of my classmate's collections for something else. By just browsing for couple pages, I was so much into it, completely! The book was a translated Chinese version (of course, barely started my English class at that time), and my classmate got it from the library (yes, we did have libraries after the deadly culture revolution). It may be hard for you to imagine what I did at that time: without a copier, I copied the whole physics parts by hand writting because I was so fascinated by it. This book inspired me to be a physicist - an idea that has never been changed in my life.

Now, >20 years passed, as a physicist working in one of the best institutes in the world. I can't help writing another personal experience on this book. The beauty of this book just can never be exaggerated.

Of course, we do NOT want/need all our kids to become scientists, but if you want them to enjoy the fascination of sciences, even just as a hobby, this book is one of the keys to open the door!

It may be a pity that there is no newer edition of this book; however, don't you think there are enough books that were messed up by "updates"? For this book, enjoying sciences is the most important inspiration to our kids, and they will have NO trouble even they realized later that some contents in the book have been updated. After all, isn't renovation/innovation one of the beautiful things of sciences?

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Over 120 delightful pen-and-ink illustrations by the author, add another dimension of good-natured charm to these wide-ranging explorations. A mind-expanding volume for the layman and the science-minded.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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