A student in the class asks the math teacher: "Should not the missing times be subtracted minus?" Teachers soon convince most students that they do not. However, the innocent question brings with it a germ of mathematical creativity.

What happens if we encourage that thought, strange and unfair, although it may seem? Some books in mathematics encourage such creative thinking. Fewer are still written and readable.

This book succeeds in both cases. Alberto Martinez tells us how many mathematical concepts we take for granted that were once considered invented, fictional, silly or wrong.

To this day, he writes, all parts of mathematics do not match the things, relationships or processes that we can observe or perform in everyday life. Negative mathematics studies such issues by exploring differences in the history of numbers, especially "negative" negative numbers.

History, puzzles and live debates are used to demonstrate how it is still possible to develop new artificial regulations for mathematical rules. In fact, the book asserts that departing from traditional rules can be the basis for new applications. For example, by using algebra in which minus imperfections are incomplete, mathematicians can describe curves or paths that are not represented by conventional coordinate geometry.

Clear and sound, predicts the negative math of her readers only acquaintances associated with algebra basic secondary school. It will prove enjoyable reading not only for those who enjoy popular mathematics, but also for historians, philosophers and educators.

Key Features: * Uses history, puzzles, and live debates to develop new mathematical systems * Shows how departures from the rules lie behind new practical applications * Clear and accessible * Requires only background algebra in basic secondary school

I want that book.