Surreal Numbers (writing the first book) - Numberphile

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knuthsat · 2021-06 · Strong recommendation

Knuth has a nice book on Surreal numbers. [LINK] This interview is excellent [VIDEO] He wrote the book in less than a week, the book was just flowing for days and after that he couldn't write a thing. Then he realized he missed a detail and had to rewrite the whole book.

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AndrewOMartin · 2022-12 · Recommendation

You sounds like you'd enjoy learning about the Surreal Numbers. [VIDEO] (15m video starring Don Knuth) [LINK] (1h15m video starring John Conway) It may be the case that you've already heard of the Surreal Numbers, but I remain confident you enjoyed learning about them. :)

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maxbond · 2021-06 · Recommendation

You can safely ignore it, the document is just a summary of Knuth's book. And it's a good one, I found it very helpful when I was working through the book. I found I had to read the material from several different sources to understand, in addition to working things out on paper/in code. I'm not religious myself but honestly that seems like a perfectly reasonable motivation. While there are some people who believe the Surreals could lead to a deeper form of analysis, I think the most common reason to learn them is to apprehend something beautiful without any sort of utility. But as a heads up, if that doesn't sit right with you, then Knuth's book is probably not right for you either; it's framed in the style of the old testament. On the first day, Conway created zero, and saw that it was good; things like that. This may be more to your taste. [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK]

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