- 400 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Mathematics and the Imagination
About this book
You don’t have to love math to enjoy a hand of cards, a night at the casino, or a puzzle. But your pleasure and prowess at games, gambling, and other numerically related pursuits can be heightened with this entertaining volume, in which the authors offer a fascinating view of some of the lesser-known and more imaginative aspects of mathematics.
A brief and breezy explanation of the new language of mathematics precedes a smorgasbord of such thought-provoking subjects as the googolplex (the largest definite number anyone has yet bothered to conceive of); assorted geometries — plane and fancy; famous puzzles that made mathematical history; and tantalizing paradoxes. Gamblers receive fair warning on the laws of chance; a look at rubber-sheet geometry twists circles into loops without sacrificing certain important properties; and an exploration of the mathematics of change and growth shows how calculus, among its other uses, helps trace the path of falling bombs.
Written with wit and clarity for the intelligent reader who has taken high school and perhaps college math, this volume deftly progresses from simple arithmetic to calculus and non-Euclidean geometry. It “lives up to its title in every way [and] might well have been merely terrifying, whereas it proves to be both charming and exciting." — Saturday Review of Literature.
A brief and breezy explanation of the new language of mathematics precedes a smorgasbord of such thought-provoking subjects as the googolplex (the largest definite number anyone has yet bothered to conceive of); assorted geometries — plane and fancy; famous puzzles that made mathematical history; and tantalizing paradoxes. Gamblers receive fair warning on the laws of chance; a look at rubber-sheet geometry twists circles into loops without sacrificing certain important properties; and an exploration of the mathematics of change and growth shows how calculus, among its other uses, helps trace the path of falling bombs.
Written with wit and clarity for the intelligent reader who has taken high school and perhaps college math, this volume deftly progresses from simple arithmetic to calculus and non-Euclidean geometry. It “lives up to its title in every way [and] might well have been merely terrifying, whereas it proves to be both charming and exciting." — Saturday Review of Literature.
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Yes, you can access Mathematics and the Imagination by Edward Kasner,James Newman, James Newman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Mathematics & Games in Mathematics. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Index
Abbott, Edwin Abbott, 128, 363
Abel, Niels Henrik, 17
Advanced Calculus, 298
Absolute rest, 24
Absolute zero, 24
Acceleration, 301, 326, 342–343
Achilles and the tortoise paradox, 37, 38, 57–58, 62
Ahrens, Wilhelm Ernst Martin Georg, 189, 191, 363
Air-raid casualties, statistics of, 262–263
Alcuin, 159
d’Alembert, Jean le Rond, 246
Aleph-Null, 45, 54
Alephs, 45, 46–47, 62, 63
Alexander of Macedon, 343
Algebraic equations with integer
coefficients, 6, 49, 64, 71, 79, 84,109, 111
Algebraic invariant, 298
Algebraic numbers, 49, 50, 110
Alte Probleme—Neue Lösungen,219
American Journal of Mathematics, The, 178, 191
American Mathematical Monthly, 363, 364
Amusements in Mathematics, 189
Analysis situs, 266 271–274, 287
Analytical geometry, 95–99, 103,120–123, 305, 306, 314
Analytical Theory of Heat, The, 254
Analytic theory of probability, 240
Annals of Mathematics,191
Anthropology, statistics in, 260–261
Anti-snowflake curve, 348–351
Apollo, 71
Apollonius, 12, 13
Applied mathematics, 114, 116, 150, 151
Approximation, methods of, 318,333–334, 336–337
Arabs, 17, 185
Arago, Dominique Francois Jean, 190
Archimedean number (see π), 75
Archimedes, 33–34, 69, 74, 310, 331
Architecture of the Universe, The, 367
Area under a curve, 335–339
Argand, ...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- Introduction
- Preface
- Introduction
- I. NEW NAMES FOR OLD
- II. BEYOND THE GOOGOL
- III. π, i, e (pie)
- IV. ASSORTED GEOMETRIES—PLANE AND FANCY
- V. PASTIMES OF PAST AND PRESENT TIMES
- VI. PARADOX LOST AND PARADOX REGAINED
- VII. CHANGE AND CHANGEABILITY
- VIII. RUBBER-SHEET GEOMETRY
- IX. CHANGE AND CHANGEABILITY
- EPILOGUE. MATHEMATICS AND THE IMAGINATION
- Bibliography
- Index