One, two, three

What Hacker News says

1. iamerroragentApr 2023
   "but it fails to uphold the most important property division should have -- that it undoes multiplication"

   I'm not sure I follow that as it's most important property. I'm not sure if division could even be defined as an operation that undoes multiplication.

   Number theory, fields, and rings I believe make it clear while subtraction and addition can be viewed as the same function; multiplication and division cannot.

   Apologize if that's not clear as to why that is; it's been a while since I read up on those being defined.

   However I recommend One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics by David Berlinski that gives in my opinion pretty good layman understanding of these nuances and number theory.

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2. mpaxSep 2018
   One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics by David Berlinski

   Often gets low ratings because people mistake it for an educational book. It’s a mix of history, biographies and verbal exposition on the development of mathematical theorems, with a good poetic slant. Reminds me I really need to look into his other books, his writing is scarily good.

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