A Dingo Ate My Math Book presents ingenious, unusual, and beautiful nuggets of mathematics with a distinctly Australian flavour. It focuses, for example, on Australians' love of sports and gambling, and on Melbourne's iconic, mathematically inspired architecture. Written in a playful and humorous style, the book offers mathematical entertainment as well as a glimpse of Australian culture for the mathematically curious of all ages. This collection of engaging stories was extracted from the Maths Masters column that ran from 2007 to 2014 in Australia's Age newspaper. The maths masters in question are Burkard Polster and Marty Ross, two (immigrant) Aussie mathematicians, who each week would write about maths in the news, providing a new look at old favourites, mathematical history, quirks of school mathematics-whatever took their fancy. All articles were written for a very general audience, with the intention of being as inviting as possible and assuming a minimum of mathematical background. Read more...
Abstract:
Presents ingenious, unusual, and beautiful nuggets of mathematics with a distinctly Australian flavour. It focuses, for example, on Australians' love of sports and gambling, and on Melbourne's iconic, mathematically inspired architecture. Written in a playful style, the book offers mathematical entertainment as well as a glimpse of Australian culture for the mathematically curious of all ages. Read more...
Author(s): Polster, Burkard; Ross, Marty
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 253
City: Australia
Tags: Mathematics -- Australia -- Popular works.;General -- General and miscellaneous specific topics -- Recreational mathematics.;General -- General and miscellaneous specific topics -- Popularization of mathematics.;General -- General and miscellaneous specific topics -- Mathematics and architecture.;Mathematics education -- General, mathematics and education -- Popularization of mathematics.;Mathematics.;Australia.
Content: Machine generated contents note: pt. 1 A day in Australia --
ch. 1 A puzzling Australia Day --
ch. 2 The biggest pineapple in the world --
ch. 3 The Nullarbor conundrum --
ch. 4 The revenge of the lawn --
ch. 5 A Greek in an Italian restaurant --
ch. 6 Please say hello to Adelaide and Victoria --
pt. 2 Sports rules! --
ch. 7 The problem of cricket points --
ch. 8 Matthew Lloyd vs. Brendan Fevola --
ch. 9 The perfect rugby conversion --
ch. 10 The Socceroos and the group of death --
ch. 11 The greatest team of all --
pt. 3 Aussie heroes --
ch. 12 Around the world in 80 (plus 129) days --
ch. 13 A prime mathematician --
ch. 14 Rubik's cube in ten seconds or less --
ch. 15 The wonderful Function of Michael Deakin --
ch. 16 A Webb of intrigue --
pt. 4 Melbourne, City of Mathematics --
ch. 17 A very peculiar Storey --
ch. 18 Federation forensics --
ch. 19 More forensicking --
ch. 20 Excavating a mathematical museum piece --
ch. 21 AcCosted at Healesville Note continued: ch. 22 The Klein Bottle Beach House --
ch. 23 Waiting for the apple to fall --
pt. 5 A Lotto gambling --
ch. 24 A bucketful of two-up --
ch. 25 We get a Lotto calls --
ch. 26 Winning the Lotto by the Melbourne method --
ch. 27 The super-rigging of poker machines --
ch. 28 How much is a $100 free bet worth? --
pt. 6 Keeping the bastards honest --
ch. 29 Tomfoolery and gerrymandering --
ch. 30 Tally up the votes that count --
ch. 31 Green, with envy --
ch. 32 Do prime ministers share their birthday cake? --
pt. 7 Canned life --
ch. 33 The perfect box --
ch. 34 Crunching can numbers --
ch. 35 An added dimension to can crunching --
ch. 36 Cool Kepler cat cans --
pt. 8 Money, money, money --
ch. 37 Taxing numbers take the law into their own hands --
ch. 38 Right on the money for a change --
ch. 39 Triangulating the Queen --
pt. 9 Family life --
ch. 40 Sex, lies, and mathematics --
ch. 41 Mathematical matchmaking --
ch. 42 Living in the zone Note continued: pt. 10 Here, there, and everywhere --
ch. 43 Proving a point on speed --
ch. 44 The Maths Masters' Tour de Victoria --
ch. 45 The Ausland paradox --
ch. 46 Schnell! Snell! --
pt. 11 TV snacks --
ch. 47 The Choice is Right! --
ch. 48 Maths MasterChefs --
ch. 49 Maths Masters under the Scope --
ch. 50 How to murder a mathematician --
ch. 51 A show devoted entirely to numbers (and letters) --
ch. 52 Bloody Numbers! --
pt. 12 The Australian math wars --
ch. 53 Irrational thoughts --
ch. 54 The best laid NAPLAN --
ch. 55 Divide and conquer --
ch. 56 Educational Barbs --
ch. 57 The statistical problem of greedy pigs --
ch. 58 The paradox of Australian mathematics education --
pt. 13 The critics at work --
ch. 59 The golden ratio must die! --
ch. 60 Newly done? Bernoulli done! --
ch. 61 Will math kill the rhino? --
ch. 62 Shooting logarithmic fish in a barrel --
ch. 63 Sliding downwards --
ch. 64 Parabolic playtime.
