On Numbers And Games

''On Numbers and Games, by JohnHortonConway.

ISBN 1568811276

Conway explores the strengths of various positions in several games and arrives at a new class of numbers, called surreal numbers, which include both real numbers and ordinal numbers; these surreal numbers are applied in the author's mathematical analysis of game strategies

Is it good?

ItDepends on what you're looking for. I enjoyed it, especially his derivation of a new system of numbers that can do all the usual kind of arithmetic. The way in which he derives all reals I thought was interesting too. The game stuff I thought got a little tedious towards the end, but has real-world applications to, for example, the GameOfGo. -- AndyPierce

ItDepends on what you're looking for. I loved it, especially his derivation of a new system of numbers that can do all the usual kind of arithmetic. Opened a whole new world of abstraction for me.

See SurrealNumbers

CategoryBook