This is a book of mathematical stories — funny and puzzling mathematical stories. They tell of villains who try to steal secrets, heroes who encode their messages, and mathematicians who spend years on end searching for the best way to pile oranges.
There are also stories about highway confusions occurring when the rules of Cartesian geometry are ignored, small-change errors due to ignorance of ancient paradoxes, and mistakes in calendars arising from poor numerical approximations.
This book is about the power and beauty of mathematics. It shows mathematics in action, explained in a way that everybody can understand. It is a book for enticing youngsters and inspiring teachers.
Nuno Crato is a leading science writer and mathematician, whose entertaining essays have won a number of international awards.
Author(s): Nuno Crato (auth.)
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 227
Tags: Mathematics, general; Popular Science in Mathematics/Computer Science/Natural Science/Technology
Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Dinner Table Algorithm....Pages 3-6
Cutting the Christmas Cake....Pages 7-10
Oranges and Computers....Pages 11-13
When Two and Two Don’t Make Four....Pages 15-18
Getting More Intelligent Every Day....Pages 19-22
The Other Lane Always Goes Faster....Pages 23-26
Shoelaces and Neckties....Pages 27-30
Number Puzzles....Pages 31-34
Tossing a Coin....Pages 35-37
The Switch....Pages 39-41
Eubulides, The Heap and The Euro....Pages 43-45
Front Matter....Pages 47-47
How GPS Works....Pages 49-52
Gear Wheels....Pages 53-56
February 29....Pages 57-60
The Nonius Scale....Pages 61-64
Pedro Nunes’ Map....Pages 65-69
Lighthouse Geometry....Pages 71-73
Asteroids and Least Squares....Pages 75-78
The Useful Man and the Genius....Pages 79-81
Front Matter....Pages 83-83
Alice and Bob 1 ....Pages 85-88
Front Matter....Pages 83-83
Inviolate Cybersecrets....Pages 89-92
Quantum Cryptography....Pages 93-96
The FBI Wavelet....Pages 97-99
The Enigma Machine....Pages 101-104
Front Matter....Pages 105-105
The Vitruvian Man....Pages 107-110
The Golden Number....Pages 111-114
The Geometry of A4 Paper Sizes....Pages 115-118
The Strange Worlds of Escher....Pages 119-122
Escher and the Möbius Strip....Pages 123-126
Picasso, Einstein and the Fourth Dimension....Pages 127-129
Pollock’s Fractals....Pages 131-136
Voronoi Diagrams....Pages 137-140
The Platonic Solids....Pages 141-144
Pythagorean Mosquitoes....Pages 145-146
The Most Beautiful of All....Pages 147-149
Front Matter....Pages 151-151
The Power of Math....Pages 153-156
Doubts in the Realm of Certainty....Pages 157-160
When Chance Enhances Reliability....Pages 161-165
The Difficulty of Chance....Pages 167-170
Conjectures and Proofs....Pages 171-172
Front Matter....Pages 151-151
Mr. Benford....Pages 173-177
Financial Fractals....Pages 179-181
Turing’s Test....Pages 183-186
DNA Computers....Pages 187-189
Magical Multiplication....Pages 191-192
π Day....Pages 193-195
The Best Job in the World....Pages 197-198
Front Matter....Pages 199-199
Electoral Paradoxes....Pages 201-204
The Melon Paradox....Pages 205-206
The Cupcake Paradox....Pages 207-208
Infinity....Pages 209-210
Unfair Games....Pages 211-212
Monsieur Bertrand....Pages 213-214
Boy or Girl?....Pages 215-215
A Puzzle for Christmas....Pages 217-219
Crisis Time for Easter Eggs....Pages 221-222
Back Matter....Pages 223-227
