Beginning with zero itself and concluding with the last great unsolved problem, this book introduces the origins of mathematics from Egyptian fractions to Roman numerals; explains the near mystical significance of pi and primes, Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio; tells you the things they didn’t at school – what calculus, statistics and algebra can actually do, and the very real uses of imaginary numbers; illuminates the big ideas of relativity, chaos theory, fractals, genetics and hyperspace; reveals the unspoken reasoning behind Sudoku and code cracking, lotteries and gambling, money management and compound interest; and explores the latest mind shattering developments, including the solving of Fermat’s last theorem and the million dollar question of the Riemann hypothesis.