Welcome back to Ian Stewart's magical world of mathematics! Here are twenty more curious puzzles and fantastical mathematical stories from one of the world's most popular and accessible writers on mathematics. This is a strange world of never-ending chess games, empires on the moon, furious fireflies, and, of course, disputes over how best to cut a cake. Each chapter--with titles such as, "How to Play Poker By Post" and "Repealing the Law of Averages"--presents a fascinating mathematical puzzle that is challenging, fun, and introduces the reader to a significant mathematical problem in an engaging and witty way. Illustrated with clever and quirky cartoons, each tale will delight those who love puzzles and mathematical conundrums.
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About the Author
Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at Warwick University, and Director of the Mathematics Awareness Centre at Warwick. An active research mathematician, he is well-known for popularizing mathematics and science for the public. A Fellow of the Royal Society, his many books include Evolving the Alien (with Jack Cohen), What Shape is a Snowflake?, and Does God Play Dice?.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How To Cut A Cake,
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This review is from: How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums (Paperback)
From 1987 until 2001, Ian Stewart wrote columns for Scientific American magazine and its foreign-language editions. This book is a collection of twenty of those columns including the last one he wrote, Easter is a Quasicrystal.
I suppose there is no way getting around the comparisons with Martin Gardner who originated the column. Be aware that they are two, very different writers but both share the goal of presenting how interesting math can be. From both you get the idea that math doesn't have to be a dry, dull subject. There are two chapters that the book's title refer to, 'Your Half's Bigger than My Half' and 'Division without Envy'. We all know how to divide something between two people. One cuts the cake in two and the other gets first choice of the pieces. But what happens when you have more than two people? Is there a way of dividing so everyone feels they have received their fair share? Many recreational subjects are covered such as paradoxes, moves on a chess board, map coloring and Sierpinski's Gasket. The author often takes these into real world applications. In the chapter 'Why Phone Cords Get tangled', Stewart mentions that DNA is also a helix, a double helix no less, and has some of the same things happening. Stewart is good at showing the reader around, poking here and there and finding out what subjects there are. If something seems especially interesting, further readings are suggested. His style is assessable and humorous and provides a fun read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but too easy for those who really want some serious mathematical challenge,
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This review is from: How to Cut a Cake: And Other Mathematical Conundrums (Paperback)
This book contains some mathematical puzzles. It would be fun reading for some people. But for those serious mathematical geek, this book might be too easy and not that fun.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
A big man and a small man were sitting in the restaurant car of a train, and both ordered fish. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
double bubble conjecture, fabrication fault, choral sequence, recreational mathematicians, adjacent nets, net graph, square packing, crossing number Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Roman Empire, Paradox Lost, Tower of Hanoi, Asia Minor, Second World War, Paradox Regained, Percy Heawood, Pierre de Fermat, Scientific American New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
A big man and a small man were sitting in the restaurant car of a train, and both ordered fish. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
double bubble conjecture, fabrication fault, choral sequence, recreational mathematicians, adjacent nets, net graph, square packing, crossing number Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Roman Empire, Paradox Lost, Tower of Hanoi, Asia Minor, Second World War, Paradox Regained, Percy Heawood, Pierre de Fermat, Scientific American New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 15
books:
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- Cake-Cutting Algorithms: Be Fair if You Can by Jack Robertson on 4 pages
- Letters to a Young Mathematician (Art of Mentoring) by Ian Stewart in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- From Here to Infinity by Ian Stewart in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The Science of Soap Films and Soap Bubbles by Cyril Isenberg on page 132, and Back Matter
- Course in Number Theory and Cryptography Hb (Graduate Texts in Mathematics,) by N I Koblitz on page 84, and Back Matter
See all 15 books this book cites
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