The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Recommendation inspired by:
Can you solve the penniless pilgrim riddle? - Daniel Finkel
The Number Devil perfectly captures the feeling I had when I first fell in love with math. It wasn't the equations or the graphs that hooked me—it was the concepts like fractals and infinity and the patterns in Pascal's Triangle that broke my brain and filled me with wonder at all their nonsensical beauty. This book lives right in that space, exploring these and many other mathematical gems through a series of dream-world challenges posed to a child by an irascible number devil. Its whimsical illustrations are a delight, and helpful for hammering home some tricky concepts. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is just discovering an interest in math—or would like to!
Recommended by:
Alex Rosenthal, TED-Ed Team
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