Publisher Description

Twelve essays take a playful approach to mathematics, investigating the topology of a blanket, the odds of beating a superior tennis player, and how to distinguish between fact and fallacy. Twelve essays take a playful approach to the subject, exploring how to play poker over the telephone without the possibility of cheating, how to distinguish plausible fallacies from unbelievable facts, and how to cope mathematically with contorted worms, drunken tennis players, and snakes that eat their own tails. Former columnist for Scientific American's "Mathematical Games" section, Ian Stewart is a professor at the University of Warwick and the author of Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into... and a score of other books of mathematical recreations, popular science, and science fiction. In this collection of pun-studded fables, he once again exercises his immense talent for transforming complicated concepts of modern mathematics into stimulating, accessible fun. Stewart introduces the different kinds of infinity, explains how to build your own virus, explores the brighter ideas of Pascal and Fermat, and even offers a dozen different puzzles for the twelve days of Christmas.

Author Biography

Author of Concepts of Modern Mathematics and Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into..., Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick (UK).

Table of Contents

1. Mother Worm's Blanket 2. The Drunken Tennis-Player 3. The Infinormatics Laboratory 4. The Autovoracious Ourotorus 5. Fallacy or Ycallaf? 6. Build Your Own Virus 7. Parity Piece 8. Close Encounters of the Fermat Kind 9. Pascal's Fractals 10. The Worm Returns 11. All Parallels Lead to Rome 12. The Twelve Games of Christmas

Long Description

These pun-studded fables by a popular science writer make complicated mathematical concepts accessible and fun.

Details