– The answer to the fundamental question … on life… the universe, and everything …is…42 […] Of course it would have been easier if I had known what the question was.
– But that was the question, the fundamental question of everything!
– This is not question! Only when you know the question will you understand the answer.
　　　　　　　　　　　——Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

★Literature, art, songs, cartoons, popular culture and much　more: Numbers are everywhere and they have a life even　outside mathematics, Or they are a way to get there in a　more entertaining way．
★English translation available.

At times we feel besieged by numbers. They seem to pop up everywhere and not leave us a moment’s peace, perhaps evoking terrible memories of our schooldays. It is precisely due to their ubiquity, that numbers　also have a life of their own outside mathematics: they can become the starting point to see literature, art, and in general the world through　different eyes and – why not? – return to mathematics in a more　entertaining way.

Numeralia explains why Dante speaks of 515 and Guareschi about 23; it tells us how the 99 Exercises in Style of Queneau and The Arabian　Nights are two sides of the same coin. It speaks about the Answer with a capital A and pop songs, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and the　Bassotti Gang, about enormous numbers like a googol and tiny ones like zero, which in this big family is the slightly mad uncle.

Maurizio Codogno a mathematician and computing scientist by training, he is also translator, blogger (at xmau.com and on the “Post”) and the author of several books. With Codice edizioni he has published Matematica in pausa caffè and Matematica in pausa pranzo.