The Mathematics of Juggling (Paperback)

by Burkard Polster (Author) "Most people think of juggling as keeping a number of objects in the air by alternately throwing and catching them..." (more)
Key Phrases: juggling diagram, juggling matrices, juggling sequences, Plain Bob, Claude Shannon, Reverse Erin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
From the reviews:

"This book is an interesting and comprehensive introduction to the mathematics of juggling. a ] This book a ] helps in making mathematics more popular. a ] The book surveys many interesting juggling-related parts of mathematics and life. a ] It is the book under review that contains the most comprehensive introduction to the mathematics of bell ringing and the corresponding toss juggling. a ] I am pleased to recommend this nice book to everyone who is interested in the topic." (GAbor CzA(c)dli, Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, Vol. 71, 2005)

"This book is the first comprehensive account of the mathematical techniques and results used in the modeling of juggling patterns. This includes all known and many new results about juggling sequences and matrices, the mathematical skeletons of juggling patterns." (Hugo S. Sun, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2004 c)

"Until now the contributions to the mathematics of juggling have been scattered in scientific journals, juggling magazines, and articles posted on the newsgroup rec.juggling, the present book provides the first comprehensive and unifying treatment of this subject. a ] it provides in my opinion essential reading for all mathematically minded jugglers. Furthermore a ] the material of the book could easily be used to communicate to a general audience a ] that mathematics and, in particular, pure mathematics can be a lot of fun." (G. Sorger, IMN - Internationale Mathematische Nachrichten, Vol. 57 (193), 2003)

"Learn to juggle numbers! This book is the first comprehensive account of the mathematical techniques and results used in the modelling of juggling patterns. This includes all known and many newresults about juggling sequences and matrices, the mathematical skeletons of juggling patterns. Many useful and entertaining tips and tricks spice up the mathematical menu presented in this book. a ] The book also includes novel, or at least not very well-known, connections with topics such as bell ringing, knot theory, and the many-body problem." (L'ENSEIGNEMENT MATHEMATIQUE, Vol. 49 (1-2), 2003)

"Mathematics constitutes an optic through which one may approach the entirety of the world. a ] As we see in The Mathematics of Juggling, the combinatorial aspect in particular turns out quite rich, with theorems turning up of surprising depth. One even finds a musical connection in a chapter devoted to juggling patterns based on change ringing. Summing Up: a ] Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (D. V. Feldman, CHOICE, July, 2003)

"Frankly, I havena (TM)t seen a lot in the main stream lately that look interesting to me, but I did come across a few interesting books in the less commonly tread areas. Even more unusual, but more accessible, is The Mathematics of Juggling, by Burkard Polster (also published by Springer). I definitely recommend this book." (Steven Roman, The Bulletin of Mathematics Books, Issue 43, February, 2003)

"The book is the first comprehensive account of the mathematical techniques and results used in the modeling of juggling patterns. a ] Accessible at all levels of mathematical sophistication, this is a book for wired jugglers, mathematical bell ringers, combinatorists, mathematics educators, and just about anybody interested in beautiful and unusual applications of mathematics." (Zentralblatt fA1/4r Didaktik der Mathematik, February,2003)

"If you thought juggling was all about throwing things up in the air and not dropping them, this book will set you straight. Ita (TM)s a a ] dense introduction to the Maximal Prime Loops, Stirling Numbers and four-bell Schreier right coset graphs that underly juggling number theory. If youa (TM)re a physicist or a mathematician you may find this interesting. a ] This would make a good set text for any university that offers Juggling Studies for Engineers course a ] ." (Peter Budden, Focus, June, 2003)

"In this book Burkard Polster records and develops the mathematical description of juggling in full detail. a ] The author does an excellent job of summarizing the work of the man who not only invented information theory but also the first juggling robot and mathematical theories of the art. a ] If you think a book called The Mathematics of Juggling sounds interesting, then you will enjoy Polstera (TM)s comprehensive and fair account." (Ken Zetie, Physics World, June, 2003)

Product Description
Learn to juggle numbers! This book is the first comprehensive account of the mathematical techniques and results used in the modelling of juggling patterns. This includes all known and many new results about juggling sequences and matrices, the mathematical skeletons of juggling patterns.

Many useful and entertaining tips and tricks spice up the mathematical menu presented in this book. There are detailed descriptions of jugglable and attractive juggling sequences, easy zero-gravity juggling, robot juggling, as well as fun juggling of words, anti-balls, and irrational numbers.

The book also includes novel, or at least not very well known connections with topics such as bell ringing, knot theory, and the many body problem. In fact, the chapter on mathematical bell ringing has been expanded into the most comprehensive survey in the literature of the mathematics used by bell ringers.

Accessible at all levels of mathematical sophistication, this is a book for mathematically wired jugglers, mathematical bell ringers, combinatorists, mathematics educators, and just about anybody interested in beautiful and unusual applications of mathematics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (February 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387955135
• ISBN-13: 978-0387955131
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #786,643 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for most jugglers, September 30, 2008

By	Michael A. Moore (Oracle, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a mathematical dunce. I have a better than average IQ, I passed high school algebra, I have been juggling for 35 years, and I even came up with diagrams on my own to remember and devise patterns. I thought I would enjoy this book, and I imagine I would if it were at all comprehensible to me. Though the book is hyped as "useful," "accessible" and "entertaining," buyers should be warned that Polster's book is about math and is written entirely in the language of math. There is no effort to bridge the gap between a practical understanding of juggling logic and his numeric abstractions. He writes in plain English prose until 3/4 of the way down page 8, and by the bottom of that page he has ditched you and disappeared into a world of opaque notation that might as well have been written by G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell. If page after page of greek letters, academic jargon and abstract equations is easy reading for you, get this book. If you don't already speak higher math, Polster isn't going to teach you how.

For a book that does what Polster does not, find Laws of Form by G. Spencer Brown.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Claude Shannon worked on juggling!, June 29, 2007

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Polster manages to take the innocuous pastime of juggling and segue from it into number theory. The movement of balls is shown to map naturally into the concepts of finite state graphs. Bringing in ideas of permutations. And introducing juggling matrices!

Plus, he points out that the founder of Information Theory, Claude Shannon, was also interested in the theory of juggling. Several crucial juggling theorems were discovered by Shannon and are named after him. For readers familiar with Shannon in computing, the book gives a look at relatively little known research by him.

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Wanted to Know About Math + Juggling, June 13, 2009

By	Robert Szarka (Norwich, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had no idea this much had been written about the mathematics of juggling, or that Claude Shannon was a juggler, until I stumbled across this book. It was a bit much for me to delve into deeply at the time, but I hope to come back and read it properly at some point. Definitely worth a look for my fellow math and juggling geeks.