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Surreal Numbers (writing the first book) - Numberphile

Numberphile

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  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Donald Knuth

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

565K views10 years ago3 recommendations

Computer scienceHistory and cultureMath for programmersPeople who shaped computingComputation and complexity

Donald Knuth shares the story of how he came to write the first book on surreal numbers after a lunch with John Conway.

Donald Knuth coined the term "Surreal Numbers" and wrote the first book about them after lunch with the man who devised them, John Conway. More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓ More from this interview: youtu.be/gMuS8ckbdZE John Conway interviews: bit.ly/ConwayNumberphile Surreal Numbers AMAZON BOOK LINK: bit.ly/KnuthSurreal John Conway AMAZON BOOK LNK: bit.ly/GeniusAtPlayUS Surreal Number graphic by Lukas Lanky Knuth Dragon Curve: youtu.be/v678Em6qyzk Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/numberphile NUMBERPHILE Website: numberphile.com/ Numberphile on Facebook: facebook.com/numberphile Numberphile tweets: twitter.com/numberphile Subscribe: bit.ly/Numberphile_Sub Numberphile is supported by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI): bit.ly/MSRINumberphile Videos by Brady Haran Brady's videos subreddit: reddit.com/r/BradyHaran/ Brady's latest videos across all channels: bradyharanblog.com/ Sign up for (occasional) emails: eepurl.com/YdjL9 Numberphile T-Shirts: teespring.com/stores/numberphile Other merchandise: store.dftba.com/collections/numberphile

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an excellent interview with Donald Knuth discussing the beauty of surreal numbers.

knuthsaton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Surreal Numbers – An Introduction (2019) [pdf]”

Knuth has a nice book on Surreal numbers. link This interview is excellent link to this video He wrote the book in less than a week, the book was just flowing for days and after that he couldn't write a thing. Then he realized he missed a detail and had to rewrite the whole book.
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maxbondon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Surreal Numbers – An Introduction (2019) [pdf]”

…learn them is to apprehend something beautiful without any sort of utility. But as a heads up, if that doesn't sit right with you, then Knuth's book is probably not right for you either; it's framed in the style of the old testament. On the first day, Conway created zero, and saw that it was good; things like that. This may be more to your taste. link to this video link link…
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AndrewOMartinon Hacker News • Recommends

On “The Pirahã Are Off by One (2020)”

You sounds like you'd enjoy learning about the Surreal Numbers. link to this video (15m video starring Don Knuth) link (1h15m video starring John Conway) It may be the case that you've already heard of the Surreal Numbers, but I remain confident you enjoyed learning about them. :)
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decentralityon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Donald Knuth: Surreal Numbers [video]”

I love how a famous forefather ( turned 3:16 experimenter and muser on metaphysics, etc ) suddenly throws in how he wanted to role play cheating in a hotel during the course of research in Oslo, and that was his wife's expectation if he was going to squeeze composing another book into their marriage. It was so nonchalant it was just thrown in as if he was describing the napkin with the theory on it: link to this video "Because we liked to have an affair in the hotel room." "So that was the plan."
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