All the Math that's Fit to Print: Articles from The Guardian (Spectrum) [Paperback]

Keith Devlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0883855151 | ISBN-13: 978-0883855157

Do you expect to find articles about mathematics in your daily newspaper? If you are a reader of The Guardian you do, or at least you did during the second half of the 1980s. This volume collects many of the columns Keith Devlin wrote for The Guardian. Read them and assign them to your students to read. This is a book for delving in, and is accessible to anyone with an interest in things mathematical. Devlin takes mathematical discoveries and explains them to the interested lay reader. The topics range from computer discoveries dealing with large prime numbers to much deeper results, such as Fermat's Last Theorem. You will find articles on the traveling salesman problem, on cryptology, and on procedures for working out claims for traveling expenses. Although the individual pieces are short and easily read, many contain references to mathematical articles and can form the basis for student research papers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Mathematics and mathematicians can be the objects of public interest, if there are individuals capable of explaining those items in a form that the intelligent reader can follow. Keith Devlin is such a person and the editors of the British paper, The Manchester Guardian, were intelligent enough to understand that. This book should be an element of every public library.' Journal of Recreational Mathematics

Book Description

Do you expect to find articles about mathematics in your daily newspaper? If you are a reader of The Guardian you do, or at least you did during the second half of the 1980s. This volume collects many of the columns Keith Devlin wrote for The Guardian. Read them and assign them to your students to read. This is a book for delving in, and is accessible to anyone with an interest in things mathematical.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: The Mathematical Association of America (September 5, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883855151
• ISBN-13: 978-0883855157
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,601,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Keith Devlin is a mathematician at Stanford University in California. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of the university's H-STAR institute, a co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network, and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He has written 31 books and over 80 published research articles. His books have been awarded the Pythagoras Prize and the Peano Prize, and his writing has earned him the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. In 2003, he was recognized by the California State Assembly for his "innovative work and longtime service in the field of mathematics and its relation to logic and linguistics." He is "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio. (Archived at http://www.stanford.edu/~kdevlin/MathGuy.html.)

He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition.

He writes a monthly column for the Mathematical Association of America, "Devlin's Angle": http://www.maa.org/devlin/devangle.html

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mathematics for the layperson done quickly and well, March 16, 2000

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All the Math that's Fit to Print: Articles from The Guardian (Spectrum) (Paperback)

Mathematics and mathematicians can be the objects of public interest, if there are individuals capable of explaining those items in a form that the intelligent reader can follow. Keith Devlin is such a person and the editors of the British paper, The Manchester Guardian, were intelligent enough to understand that. The result is a mathematically simple-minded yet enjoyable collection of 143 brief vignettes covering mathematics and computer science.
Generally, only one and one-half pages in length, most articles earn the accolade, "touche." As many writers point out, the short piece is often the hardest to write, as every word must count. Devlin succeeds in the most difficult of arenas, in that enough background must be given so that the naïve reader can understand the topic and the point is resolved with sufficient clarity. And all this is done with a minimum of formulas. While sophisticated mathematicians and computer scientists will find the material limp, this work is capable of standing on its own as a piece of entertainment.
An existence proof that mathematics and computer science can be made understandable to an intelligent public that is interested, this book should be an element of every public library.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.