Book Review: Number 9
Number 9: The Search for the Sigma Code by Cecil Balmond, published by Prestel, 1998. Hardcover, 236 pages. (Amazon)
Known most for his work with Ove Arup & Partners in London (as Director of the engineering consultancy), Cecil Balmond has become the go-to engineer for many well-known architects, such as Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind. Aside from this highly visible work, he also teaches and lectures widely, expressing the ideas that go into his work as well as the relationship of art and science. In Number 9, he has written a book about mathematics that will appeal to those with even just a cursory knowledge of the field, but more so to people who are frustrated with numbers. In the search for the sigma code, Balmond is accompanied by Enjil, a fictional master of numbers who believes that math need not be difficult. The secret lies in sigma, a single-digit number derived by adding the integers of any number: 32's sigma is 5 (3+2), 123's sigma is 6 (1+2+3), 99's sigma is 9 (9+9=18; 1+8=9), ... Along the way the sigma code is revealed as an imprint for all numbers, number 9 being the number around which all other numbers flow, as well as a boundary for the same. While this may sound enigmatic, Balmond explains this conclusion both through math and visualizations (the cover's background being one such), the latter making his ideas easy to understand and extremely convincing.
Known most for his work with Ove Arup & Partners in London (as Director of the engineering consultancy), Cecil Balmond has become the go-to engineer for many well-known architects, such as Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind. Aside from this highly visible work, he also teaches and lectures widely, expressing the ideas that go into his work as well as the relationship of art and science. In Number 9, he has written a book about mathematics that will appeal to those with even just a cursory knowledge of the field, but more so to people who are frustrated with numbers. In the search for the sigma code, Balmond is accompanied by Enjil, a fictional master of numbers who believes that math need not be difficult. The secret lies in sigma, a single-digit number derived by adding the integers of any number: 32's sigma is 5 (3+2), 123's sigma is 6 (1+2+3), 99's sigma is 9 (9+9=18; 1+8=9), ... Along the way the sigma code is revealed as an imprint for all numbers, number 9 being the number around which all other numbers flow, as well as a boundary for the same. While this may sound enigmatic, Balmond explains this conclusion both through math and visualizations (the cover's background being one such), the latter making his ideas easy to understand and extremely convincing.
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