Customer Reviews

Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers

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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.

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.

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.

This book gives a summary of every interesting number known. A great way to find areas of maths to explore further and use as a stimulus to teaching. Check out his other Penguin Dictionaries, too - they make a great set.

Interesting book but the condition (used) was not as advertised. There were notes written all over every page and heavy underlining.

This book is fantastic. It delves very heavily into the history and character of mathematics and particularly mathematicians. Furthermore, it shows all the tantalizing structures to numbers that most people ignore. This kind of point by point scrutiny of the landscape of numbers is very enlightening and indeed interesting. There is also a lot of humor in the writing, which is much appreciated.

The only problem is the outdated state of the book. I can only wonder what new amazing things we have discovered floating up in the hundreds of digits of numbers that have appeared to us thanks to our invention of computers. The beasts there are much more curious and bizarre (as many functions that we take for granted only appear as nice as they do because we examine them when they are close to a few select points close to 0).

I like the part where he comes to 37 (I think) and say that 37 is the first non-interesting number, which in fact makes in interestind and simultaneously interesting and non interesting going on to prove that there are consequently no non-interesting numbers.

This little book has been read and reread so many times by myself and my children that it is falling to bits. The trancendental numbers are full of intriguing wierdnesses. One intriguingly wierd number after another

does anyone even imagine that this little charmer pretends to be more than the wee delight that it is, and has been for decades? math, even recreational math, does expand over time; carpers can carp that this or that latest thing isn't here. but really, what IS here, page after page, will amuse and edify almost all readers.

The various and quicksilver aspects of mathmatics is really where the charm lies for the scholar,as numbers themselves are the critters with which all scientific worlds are populated, the true scholar should begin with these first principles. A very good book for students who could use a few wows.