Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them
A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity
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Narrated by:
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Antonio Padilla
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By:
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Antonio Padilla
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
A fun, dazzling exploration of the strange numbers that illuminate the ultimate nature of reality.
For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac, or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths led to strange new understandings of the ultimate nature of reality. But what are these truths? What are the mysterious numbers that explain the universe?
In Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, the leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star Antonio Padilla takes us on an irreverent cosmic tour of nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics, offering a startling picture of how the universe works. These strange numbers include Graham’s number, which is so large that if you thought about it in the wrong way, your head would collapse into a singularity; TREE(3), whose finite nature can never be definitively proved, because to do so would take so much time that the universe would experience a Poincaré Recurrence—resetting to precisely the state it currently holds, down to the arrangement of individual atoms; and 10^{-120}, measuring the desperately unlikely balance of energy needed to allow the universe to exist for more than just a moment, to extend beyond the size of a single atom—in other words, the mystery of our unexpected universe.
Leading us down the rabbit hole to a deeper understanding of reality, Padilla explains how these unusual numbers are the key to understanding such mind-boggling phenomena as black holes, relativity, and the problem of the cosmological constant—that the two best and most rigorously tested ways of understanding the universe contradict one another. Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them is a combination of popular and cutting-edge science—and a lively, entertaining, and even funny exploration of the most fundamental truths about the universe.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2022 Antonio Padilla (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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How much can we know about the world? In this audiobook physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the limits of knowledge. In so doing he reaches a provocative conclusion: Science, like religion, is fundamentally limited as a tool for understanding the world. As science and its philosophical interpretations advance, we face the unsettling recognition of how much we don't know.
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Island of knowledge
- By Joshua Kring on 07-26-15
By: Marcelo Gleiser
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The Universe in Your Hand
- A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond
- By: Christophe Galfard
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
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Christophe Galfard's mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young-adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe.
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Awesome
- By AJ on 02-28-17
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How to Speak Science
- Gravity, Relativity, and Other Ideas That Were Crazy Until Proven Brilliant
- By: Bruce Benamran, Stephanie Delozier Strobel
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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As smartphones, supercomputers, supercolliders, and AI propel us into an ever more unfamiliar future, How to Speak Science takes us on a rollicking historical tour of the greatest discoveries and ideas that make today's cutting-edge technologies possible. Wanting everyone to be able to "speak" science, YouTube science guru Bruce Benamran explains - as accessibly and wittily as in his acclaimed videos - the fundamental ideas of the physical world: matter, life, the solar system, light, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, and much more.
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Wowzers!
- By Ralph Temblador on 02-15-21
By: Bruce Benamran, and others
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Calculating the Cosmos
- How Mathematics Unveils the Universe
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Dana Hickox
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In Calculating the Cosmos, Ian Stewart presents an exhilarating guide to the cosmos, from our solar system to the entire universe. He describes the architecture of space and time, dark matter and dark energy, how galaxies form, why stars implode, how everything began, and how it's all going to end. He considers parallel universes, the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life, what forms extraterrestrial life might take, and the likelihood of life on Earth being snuffed out by an asteroid.
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Crank alert: rejects modern cosmology
- By James Weisner on 03-20-17
By: Ian Stewart
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The Physics of Star Trek
- By: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Narrated by: Larry McKeever
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
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What actually happens when the words, "beam me up, Scottie" are uttered? What "warps" when something travels at warp speed? Internationally renowned theoretical physicist and educator Lawrence M. Krauss provides matter-of-fact scientific explanations of the physics of Star Trek in this highly creative and informative guide for both the devoted Trekkie and the physics novice.
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Interesting Book. Quite Technical
- By Christopher B. on 12-07-04
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Warped Passages
- Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
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Warped Passages is an altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early 20th-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities that, until recently, were restricted to the realm of science fiction. Unraveling the twisted threads of the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, she explores some of the most fundamental questions posed by Nature.
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Physics textbook without the math
- By Victor on 05-13-18
By: Lisa Randall
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The World According to Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Jim Al-Khalili
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
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Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al-Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucially important science tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. Al-Khalili begins by introducing the fundamental concepts of space, time, energy, and matter, and then describes the three pillars of modern physics - quantum theory, relativity, and thermodynamics - showing how all three must come together if we are ever to have a full understanding of reality.
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excellent book
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-21
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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Forces of Nature
- By: Professor Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
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Professor Brian Cox uncovers some of the most extraordinary natural events on Earth and in the universe and beyond. From the immensity of the universe and the roundness of Earth to the form of every single snowflake, the forces of nature shape everything we see. Pushed to extremes, the results are astonishing. In seeking to understand the everyday world, the colours, structure, behaviour and history of our home, we develop the knowledge and techniques necessary to step beyond the everyday.
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Complicated in its simplicity
- By Philomath on 06-13-17
By: Professor Brian Cox, and others
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Coming of Age in the Milky Way
- By: Timothy Ferris
- Narrated by: Timothy Ferris
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
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Humans have long sought to comprehend the enormities of cosmic space and time. Here, best selling science writer Timothy Ferris tells the story of that quest. He interweaves the majestic themes of astronomy, physics, religion, and philosophy with fresh and lasting portraits of the men and women who created what has been called our society's most precious treasure - its conception of the universe at large.
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Brief survey of discovery from Columbus to now
- By serine on 01-23-16
By: Timothy Ferris
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Stephen Hawking: His Life and Work
- By: Kitty Ferguson
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Stephen Hawking is one of the most remarkable figures of our time, a Cambridge genius who has earned international celebrity as a brilliant theoretical physicist and become an inspiration and revelation to those who have witnessed his courageous triumph over disability. This is Hawking's life story by Kitty Ferguson, who has had special help from Hawking himself and his close associates and who has a gift for translating the language of theoretical physics for non-scientists.
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Not What it Appears
- By Heizenberg on 04-04-12
By: Kitty Ferguson
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About Time
- Cosmology, Time and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang
- By: Adam Frank
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
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The Big Bang is all but dead, and we do not yet know what will replace it. Our universe's "beginning" is at an end. What does this have to do with us here on Earth? Our lives are about to be dramatically shaken again - as altered as they were with the invention of the clock, the steam engine, the railroad, the radio and the Internet.
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More fluff than science
- By Ivan the Reviewer on 04-15-13
By: Adam Frank
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Beyond Biocentrism
- Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death
- By: Robert Lanza, Bob Berman
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
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In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza and astronomer Bob Berman take the listener on an intellectual thrill ride as they reexamine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself. The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries.
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Here's the thing
- By Mikal on 11-09-18
By: Robert Lanza, and others
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Great story and narration, but lacks rigor...
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Accompanying PDF is Included
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Excellent narration can’t make up for lack of PDF
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How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch
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Harry Cliff - a University of Cambridge particle physicist and researcher on the Large Hadron Collider - sets out in pursuit of answers. He ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the "Antimatter Factory," where the stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we're close to knowing whether it falls up).
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Down the rabbit hole in a most fascinating way!
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Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves. Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes "backwards" sometimes; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.
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Not written to be read aloud
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What listeners say about Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Richard Redano
- 11-04-23
A+ in Math & Physics; D in 20th Century History
This book's insightful explanation of the symbiotic relationship between math & physics rates A+. The book's survey of the history of zero and its impact on commerce rates an A in Ancient History. The book erroneously states that planes from the "U S Air Force" dropped atom bombs on Japan in WWII. The U S Air Force did not exist during WWII. Thus, this book gets a D in 20th Century History.
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- Scott L. Barnes
- 08-17-22
Wonderful Narration but Difficult to Grasp
I have a background in science, but most of these concepts are far beyond my capability to understand. Antonia's narration is absolutely great (as if Roy Kent is speaking, but not so gruff). I really liked his analogies as he attempts to explain such difficult topics. Maybe when I croak, I will be allowed to understand everything (only briefly though, just before I enter the void).
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- Fred Schaumberg
- 02-16-23
Awesome
Awesome, great explanation of difficult concepts and a deep dive in to history and development of these.
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- Carlos
- 10-12-23
Excellent
Fantastically written and read by the author. I learned a great deal from this book.
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- Greg
- 10-13-22
4 number geeks
Number geeks will love it. You don't even need to be a math whiz to understand the hard to understand world of numbers.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael
- 05-23-23
Exciting, Strange, Difficult = Meh
I really love numbers. I remember first learning about a googol from an Isaac Azimov book around 1970 (I got to tell all my geek friends). This book mostly annoyed me. The first number was a bit of nonsense about the amount sprinter Usain Bolt was time dilated. A number is given having little to do with reality. He talks about googol and googolplex in term of cosmological doppelgängers – another bit of unrealistic philosophy. Then Graham’s number, which is so big it will make your head explode. I doesn’t. He discusses infinity in terms of quantum and string theory. The author tried to excite the reader about numbers with strangeness and difficult to understand science, but (for me) totally misses the beauty of the simplicity of numbers. Azimov excited me about numbers this book did not.
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- Karl F.
- 12-23-22
Amazing book
Real talk thank you for this! W w w w w w w we w w w w w w
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- nadia chettaoui
- 09-28-23
lots more physics that I anticipated
was hoping for more number theory content but still interesting and fun. There is a lot of emphasis on the physics side of numbers which makes them more tangible.
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Overall
- Eric
- 08-05-22
Tony Padilla gets a COisG
At Come On It's Still Good we rate movies, books, and showd as COisG (Come On It's Still Good) or COisB (Bad). Fantastic Numbers gets a COisG and should be on every numberphile fan's reading list. The audio book is also great, as it is read by Tony himself! Enlightening, entertaining, funny, and quotable. COisG!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- GeeBee
- 10-04-24
Absolutely Fantastic!
As if the subject is not a bewildering and totally brilliant collection of erudite essays, the author - who is also the narrator here - is clearly having so much fun that it is literally impossible to not smile nonstop while listening to these stories from the deepest and farthest reaches of reality, and even beyond. Totally lives up to all expectations, and happily surpasses many as well. Can’t disappoint.
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