The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers [Paperback]

David Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1987

First published in 1986, this mind-boggling and entertaining dictionary, arranged in order of magnitude, exposes the fascinating facts about certain numbers and number sequences - very large primes, amicable numbers and golden squares to give but a few examples.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

DAVID WELLS has written extensively on problems and popular mathematics, and many of his titles are available in Penguin. He is involved in education through writing and research, and lives in this country. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (April 7, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140080295
• ISBN-13: 978-0140080292
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,339,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No recreational mathematician should be without it, December 10, 2000

By 

Primoz Peterlin - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Penguin Book of Curious and Interesting Numbers: Revised Edition (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)

In the foreword to G.H. Hardy's book A Mathematician's Apology, C.P. Snow tells an anecdote about Hardy and his collaborator Srinavasa Ramanujan. Hardy, perhaps the greatest number theorist of 20th century, took a taxi from London to the hospital at Putney where Ramanujan was dying of tuberculosis, Hardy noticed its number, 1729. Always inept about introducing a conversation, he entered the room where Ramanujan was lying in bed and, with scarcely a hello, blurted out his opinion about the taxi-cab number. It was, he declared, "rather a dull number," adding that he hoped that wasn't a bad omen. "No, Hardy! No, Hardy," said Ramanujan, "it is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."

Usually it takes a great deal of insight as well as considerable mathematical training to discover a yet unknown properties of some number. Only recognizing the beauty of a number pattern is much easier, though, especially with a friendly book like this one on hand. Wells, a long-time mathematics popularizer, has collected over 1000 numbers he considers interesting. Each of them is given a short explanation, often accompanied with a bibliographic reference. Celebrities among the numbers, like i, e or Pi, are given a more comprehensive treatment. Included are also several sequences, like Fibonacci's, Mersenne's, Fermat's, Carmichael's or Kaprekar's, each accompanied with its explanation. So are cyclic, amicable, untouchable or lucky numbers, and many more sequences you probably didn't know about.

While Wells' dictionary certainly gives the impression of a well-researched work, the list of numbers is by no means exhaustive. Anyone familiar with chaos theory will notice the absence of Feigenbaum constant; prime hunters would probably be interested in discussion on Woodall primes, Sophie-Germain primes, or Proth primes. But they are better off with Paulo Ribenboim's book on primes, anyway, while Wells' book, with its easily understandable explanations and accessible price is probably more suited for the "recreational mathematics" audience.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Googolplex good reasons why read this book!, April 29, 1999

By 

Itamar Ronen (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Penguin Book of Curious and Interesting Numbers: Revised Edition (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)

Loaded with information, light-hearted and extremely well written! The book is so enjoyable that whenever you get near it you feel like grabbing it and find the vices and virtues of yet another number. And between one number and the next, one meets an entire gallery of mathematicians, mathematical terms, unsolved problems, great achievements and colossal mistakes... It's a jewel of a book - I strongly reccomend it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Middle and High School Students, June 15, 2000

By 

Gary the blues man "nvarea" (Sunderland, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Penguin Book of Curious and Interesting Numbers: Revised Edition (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)

A great supplemental tool for teachers! I had terrific fun with my 6th grade math students when reading them certain passages in this book. Many of the topics covered, such as factorials, hexidecimals, triangular numbers, pi, primes, etc. are not generally covered in the middle school very well or at all, and this book serves as a great launching tool for discussions that kids enjoy and think about long after class is over. Also, many topics go in depth and will challenge even the best high school math students and take them in many directions that traditional math education does not.