My Numbers, My Friends. Popular Lectures On Number Theory

Paulo Ribenboim treats numbers as personal friends in this collection of expository essays. Topics include prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers and the Arctic Ocean, the classical work of Gauss on binary quadratic forms, Euler's famous prime producing polynomial, powers, and irrational and transcendental numbers. The essays are written in a light language without secrets and are thoroughly accessible to everyone with an interest in numbers. Other books by the author are "The New Book of Prime Number Records", "The Little Book of Big Primes", which have enjoyed a considerable success, and "the recent "Fermat's Last Theorem for Amateurs" (1999).