Customer Reviews

A Passion for Mathematics: Numbers, Puzzles, Madness, Religion, and the Quest for Reality

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Clifford Pickover is clearly proud of his prodigious output of books. Many of his book jackets highlight the fact that he's published one book a year. But at what price? I eagerly grabbed this book only to see some of the same old puzzles resurface that I've seen in two or three of his other books. I get the sense that Pickover has a giant file of math snippets that he reshuffles and repackages with slightly changed themes in each new book.

Don't get me wrong; I think Pickover is a great popularizer of mathematics. I just wish he'd stop recycling the same material.

Clifford A. Pickover, "A Passion for Mathematics," many figures, an answer section, a section of mathematical artwork.

The book is a real treat. Chapter 2, titled "Cool Numbers" (pgs 45-110) is particularly encyclopedic. In this chapter, the reader learns about fascinating numbers and strange number sequences. Topic covered: transcendental numbers, octonions, surreal numbers, obstinate numbers, cyclic numbers, Vibonacci numbers perfect numbers, automorphic numbers, prime numbers, Wilson primes, palindromic primes, Fibonacci primes, Sophie Germain primes, Baxter-Hickerson primes, star-congruent primes, narcissistic numbers, amenable numbers, amicable numbers, p-adic numbers, large palindromes, factorions, hyperfactorials, primorials, palindions and hyperpalindions, exotic-looking formulas for pi, the Golay-Rudin-Shapiro sequence, Mill's constant, wonderful Pochhammer notation, famous and curious math constants (like Liouville's constant, the Copeland-Erdös constant, Brun's constant, Champernowne's number, Euler's gamma, Chaitin's constant, the Landau-Ramanujan constant, the golden ratio, Apéry's constant, and mathematical constants almost too strange to contemplate.)

Other topics: Jesus and mathematics. Why is the number 13 considered unlucky? Who discovered pi? What are "nimbers"? What would happen if everyone's body weight were quantized and came in multiples of pi pounds?

Something for all readers.

In a "Passion for Mathematics", Clifford Pickover takes up where he left off in his widely-acclaimed book "Wonders of Numbers." The passion in the title refers to the work of Ramanujan, a mathematician from India who startled the world with equations seemingly pulled from thin air. Ramanujan credited a goddess, Namagiri, for his inspiration. Thus, part of this work deals with the life and legacy of Ramanujan.

The passion may also refer to Pickover's infatuation with the riddles of mathematics. He deals with classic problems such as that of the Bridges of Konigsberg or the always popular secrets of magic squares. Some of the mathematical investigations are a little further off the beaten track. For example, what is the most forgettable license plate? A friend of Pickover, a physicist, actually has a plate with the string of letters "syzygys." (See "customer image") Is this impossible to remember? Most people may say yes. However, it is easy to recall if you are a solar eclipse devotee or a fan of the musical group of that name. Pickover concludes that the string with the highest entropy (the most disorder) is the most forgettable, e.g., the binary string 11010010.

This is an excellent book for those who would like to share the passion for mathematics of Ramujan and Pickover.

Clifford A. Pickover's book A Passion for Mathematics is a marvellous collection of curious math facts that is sure to please lovers of Recreational Mathematics everywhere.
Pickover's book is filled with math curiosities that will enchant all those with a genuine interest in and love of recreational mathematics.
Pickover's book contains many mathematical gems. Within its covers there are many beautiful and interesting formulas involving the famous math constant, Pi. On page 78 of the book Pickover gives a truly beautiful and wonderful equation involving the two famous transcendentals, Pi and e. This equation illustrates the beauty and harmony that is to be found throughout mathematics.
The book is crammed with extremely interesting number facts. Many delightful puzzles are also packed between its covers.
I particularly liked Pickover's discussion of Sam Loyd's mixed teas puzzle, which illustrates just how good a mathematician Sam Loyd was.
This book will find a very welcome place on my bookshelf. Pickover's book will also be welcomed by all those who like to read about or collect curious mathematical facts and oddities.

A truly passionate and exciting book, focusing on a wide variety of
math concepts. In this book, Cliff Pickover gives you everything your
math teachers somehow forgot to reveal to you -- exotic and beautiful
insights and math curiosities you can hardly imagine. The book is
lively, with an inviting visual format. Here you'll read about unusual,
outstanding mathematicians, about Jesus and multiplication, Fibonacci
snakes, the number 10 and the Jews, rare sums, mathematics and romance,
mathematics of toilet paper, how to create kissing circles, about the
mystery of infinity, mathematics and beauty, and more...

Cliff Pickover reveals hidden mysteries of the mathematical world,
expands your mind and shows you how mathematics can make your everyday
life exciting and colorful. He does this in a fun, relaxing, playful,
and extremely pleasing way. After reading "A Passion for Mathematics,"
you'll keep it close to your bedside, discuss it with your friends, and
what's most important -- you'll never be scared of mathematics
anymore.

And finally you'll get the answer to the question that bothered you for
years: why on Earth do we have to learn mathematics?

An amazing math book, which brings a smile on your face and enriches
your life.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and found material I had never encountered before in any book. In particular, these novel topics included: Schmidhuber circles (created by some very simple rules), the world's most forgettable license plate, calculating prodigy Rudiger Gamm, and several fascinating snippets on tic-tac-toe.

Pickover has a particularly interesting set of sections that introduce the reader to numbers like Conway's nimbers, octonions, surreal numbers, and related. There's also quite a collection of mathematical constants to ponder: Apery's, Brun's, Chaitin, Champernowne, coincidental, Copeland-Erdös, Euler's gamma, Euler-Mascheroni, fine structure, golden ratio, infinite power tower, Landau-Ramanujan, Liouville, Mandelbrot, Mill's, pi, and Thue.

Finally, the book is littered with great-looking formulas from Ramanujan. Just how could Ramanujan have discovered these gems?

I liked some if the odd prime number contests and challenges, especially the "Triangle of the Gods," where Pickover had asked colleagues to find the first prime number in this interesting growing triangle:

1
12
123
1234
12345
123456
1234567
12345678
123456789
1234567890
12345678901
123456789012
1234567890123
etc...

A fascinating collection of mathematical curiosities and profound thoughts. I found that the presentation of 100s of bite-sized topics, quotations, puzzles, and facts to be particularly enjoyable because this feature made the book both fun to read and mind-expanding. I liked some of the discussions on mathematics and reality and humorous puzzles. Because of the diversity of topics, this should satisfy young minds as well as seasoned mathophiles. Very educational, because each new math concept is defined.

Do humans invent mathematics or discover mathematics? What is reality? Why does the universe seem to operate according to mathematical laws? What is the most forgettable license plate? Which brilliant mathematicians were mass murderers? What romantic comedy has the most complicated mathematics ever portrayed in a movie? Which mathematicians claimed that their mathematical breakthroughs came directly from God?

Here is the Table of Contents:

Introduction
A. Mathematical Marvels from Beyond the Edge
B. The Ramanujan Code
C. Blood Dreams and God's Mathematicians
D. The Mathematical Smorgasbord
E. Explanation of Symbols
F. Cultivating Perpetual Mystery

Chapter 1. Numbers, History, Society, and People
Chapter 2. Cool Numbers
Chapter 3. Algebra, Percentages, Weird Puzzles, Marvelous Mathematical Manipulation
Chapter 4. Geometry, Games, and Beyond
Chapter 5. Probability: Take your Chances
Chapter 6. Big Numbers and Infinity
Chapter 7. Mathematics and Beauty (includes some great mathematical art)

This book has something for all ages. I shared it with high school kids interested in mathematics, and they couldn't put the book down. Then I showed it to mathematical researchers, and they loved sections too. The book is composed of many short snippets to increase the reader's curiosity about mathematics. The book is also loaded with puzzles. I particularly liked "The Stained Glass Squares of Constantine." Everyone I show it to seems to give a different answer.

I find many books on recreational mathematics disappointing because I'm already familiar with most of the material that they cover, but most of the material in this book was new to me. Dr. Pickover's entertaining style is also a plus.

This is not bok for linear thinkers but a great book to pick up and browse. A wonderful collection of mathematicals facts and trivia with some very intereseting puzzles thrown in. Great to look into when you have a spare half hour. Why do we really only need the first ten or so digits of Pi when we now know the first million or so? What is Wilson's Theorm anyway?

If you like alot of information prepared in bite size chunks this book is for you.