The modern number system did not come to us gift-wrapped but rather has developed over many centuries. There were long periods ofconfusion, which had two root causes. The first was the lack ofan efficient way to represent the numbers we need that would allowus to manipulate them. The second, which was related to the first, was philosophical agonizing over the interpretations ofvarious number types and whether or not they are meaningful. Nowadays we are much more sure ofourselves when it comes to what we do and don't need to worry aboutwhen dealing with numbers, making it possible to give a complete picture ofthe number world in a single short account like this one.That is not to say that all mystery has vanished–far from it, as you will discover as you read on.