Zero to infinity : a history of numbers
(Video, Book)

Course guidebook includes professor biography, statement of course scope, lecture outlines and notes, timeline, glossary, biographical notes, and bibliography.

Director, Tom Dooley ; camera operators, Alexis Doty, Lonnie Anderson ; academic content supervisors, Marcy McDonald, Nancy Eskridge.

Twenty-four lectures of thirty minutes each by Edward B. Burger, Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Williams College.

What is your definition of number? Defining the abstract idea of number is extremely difficult and today, we still struggle with the notion of what numbers mean. Numbers neither came to us fully formed in nature nor did they spring fully formed from the human mind. Like other ideas, they have evolved slowly throughout human history. Both practical and abstract, they are important in our everyday world but remain mysterious in our imaginations. If numbers are precision personified, why does a precise, accurate, and satisfying definition of number still elude us?

DVD.