Authors:
- An entertaining introduction to special characters and symbols
- Features illustrative examples from many different areas: everyday life, politics and religion, science and technology, astronomy and mathematics
- Requires no previous knowledge in any field
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Yet, who would be readily able to answer any question like: ‘who chose π to represent the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference?’ or ‘what’s the reasoning behind having a ⌘ key on my computer keyboard?’  This book is precisely for those who have always asked themselves this sort of questions.
So, here are the stories behind one hundred glyphs, the book being evenly divided into five parts, with each featuring 20 symbols. Part 1, called Character sketches, looks at some of the glyphs we use in writing. Part 2, called Signs of the times, discusses some glyphs used in polÂitics, religion, and other areas of everyday life. Some of these symbols are common; others are used only rarely. Some are modern inventions; others, which seem contemporary, can be traced back many hundreds of years. Part 3, called Signs and wonders, explores some of the symbols people have developed for use in describing the heavens. These are some of the most visually striking glyphs in the book, and many of them date back to ancient times. Nevertheless their use — at least in professional arenas — is diminishing. Part 4, called It’s Greek to me, examines some symbols used in various branches of science. A number of these symbols are employed routinely by professional scientists and are also familiar to the general public; others are no longer applied in a serious fashion by anyone — but the reader might still meet them, from time to time, in older works. The final part of the book, Meaningless marks on paper, looks at some of the characters used in mathematics, the history of which one can easily appreciate with only a basic knowledge of mathematics.
There are obviously countless others symbols. In recent years the computing industry has develÂoped Unicode and it currently contains more than 135 000 entries. This book would like to encourage the curious reader to take a stroll through Unicode, to meet many characters that will delight the eye and, researching their history, to gain some fascinating insights. ​
Authors and Affiliations
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St. Andrews Court Unit 3, DCQE University of Portsmouth St. Andrews Court Unit 3, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Stephen Webb
About the author
His most recent book is All the Wonder that Would Be - Exploring Past Notions of the Future​(2017), again published as part of Springer’s Science and Fiction series.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Clash of Symbols
Book Subtitle: A ride through the riches of glyphs
Authors: Stephen Webb
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71350-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-71349-6Published: 17 January 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-71350-2Published: 09 January 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 245
Number of Illustrations: 45 b/w illustrations
Topics: Popular Science in Physics, Popular Science in Astronomy, Popular Science in Mathematics, Popular Science in Technology, Popular Science in Humanities / Arts, Popular Computer Science