The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The road through this book is chaotic and takes many turns in order to surprise and delight you..." (more)
Key Phrases: juggler sequences, mpz init, stephane dumas, Difficulty Level, Brian Mansfield, Bone Being (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Be ready for a wonderful experience as you go through the numerical adventures of Oz."
Mathematics Teacher

"Overall, this is a book of high quality puzzles...The solutions are very complete and understandable."
The Mathematical Association of America Online

"A stimulating romp through often mind-bending terrain."
Science News

"A perpetual idea machine, Clifford Pickover is one of the most creative, original thinkers in the world today."
Journal of Recreational Mathematics

"Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both."
Wired

"Filled with an abundance of complex mysteries."
Paper Clips

"A must for anyone interested in puzzles, brainteasers, and mathematical oddities--particularly those who have ever wondered how many Great Pyramids could be constructed from the bricks making up a yellow-brick road extending coast to coast across the US. Recommended."
Choice

"Readers cannot deny the wit, humor, and intelligent challenges Pickover demands of them. Those who love solving puzzles will surely appreciate the whimsy and the sport."
Leonardo, 36(5), 2003

"This text with its strange mazes, bizarre consequences, and dizzying arrays of logic problems would entertain readers at all levels of mathematical sophistication... An original, fun-filled, and unusual introduction to numbers and their rules in creativity, computers, games, practical research, and adventures that teeter on the edge of logic and amusement. Certainly, fans of recreational mathematics will enjoy this text that offers a range of challenging puzzles with a detailed and plain language answer keys for all puzzles."
Medhat H. Raim, School Science and Mathematics

Product Description

Grab a pencil. Relax. Then take off on a mind-boggling journey to the ultimate frontier of math, mind, and meaning as acclaimed author Clifford Pickover, Dorothy, and Dr. Oz explore some of the oddest and quirkiest highways and byways of the numerically obsessed. The thought-provoking mysteries, puzzles, and problems range from zebra numbers and circular primes to Legion's number--a number so big that it makes a trillion pale in comparison. The strange mazes, bizarre consequences, and dizzying arrays of logic problems entertain readers at all levels of mathematical sophistication. The tests devised by enigmatic Dr. Oz to assess human intelligence will tease the brain of even the most avid puzzle fan. They feature a host of mathematical topics: geometry and mazes, sequences, series, sets, arrangements, probability and misdirection, number theory, arithmetic, and even several problems dealing with the physical world. With numerous illustrations, this is an original, fun-filled, and unusual introduction to numbers and their role in creativity, computers, games, practical research, and absurd adventures that teeter on the edge of logic and insanity. Clifford A. Pickover is the author of over twenty highly acclaimed books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction. Among his books are Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty (St. Martin's Press, 1990), Wonders of Numbers (Oxford University Press, 2000), Dreaming the Future (Prometheus, 2001), The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars (Princeton University Press, 2001), The Stars of Heaven (Oxford University Press, 2001), The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience (Palgrave, 2002). A Ph.D. graduate of Yale University, he is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, the associate editor for several journals, the author of colorful puzzle calendars, and puzzle contributor to adult and children's magazines. Pickover's computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines and on T.V. shows.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (September 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521016789
• ISBN-13: 978-0521016780
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #292,268 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Math Puzzles from another Universe!, September 13, 2002

By	Melanie Michaels (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

I found the puzzles and problems in this book to be original and varied, and with a wide range of difficulty levels. I enjoyed the fact that some puzzles might actually have more than one answer, which leaves room for healthy debate and for better understanding the way different people think. I think this book can be enjoyed by readers of different levels of mathematical sophistication. For example, a freshman in high school could skip the more difficult problems, like the one on Ramanujan Congruences, although this is one of the most interesting chapters. My favorite chapter is one that poses a statistics-like question, dealing with bones thrown into a pit. You have to figure out the ratio of the long piece to the short piece. Here's a sample of other chapters that I really enjoyed:

1. The Yellow-brick Road
2. An Experiment with Kansas
8. The Problem of the Bones
16. Omega Sphere
28. Legions' Number
29. The Problem of the Tombs
35. Prime-poor Equations
36. Number Satellite
43. Ramanujan Congruences and the Quest for Transcendence
49. The Jellyfish of Europa
99. A Connection Between Pi and e
103. The Scarecrow Formula
107. The Omega Crystal
108. Attack of the Undulating Undecamorphs

I've already spent hours reading and rereading the book, and showing it to friends, and I know I'll spend many hours more!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What is interesting and what solvable?, October 14, 2003

By	Massimiliano Celaschi (Graffignano, Viterbo Italy) - See all my reviews

I prefer mathematical puzzles that have two features:
- they are interesting (i.e. they have that difficulty that make them worth trying to solve);
- they are solvable without developing a whole new theory and without writing program code.
In this book most problems that are interesting (very interesting and intriguing, I must admit) are not solvable in the foresaid sense, and most solvable ones are not interestin. Of course, a few are both. The picture sequences to be completed are very original, and sometimes difficult, examples of QI tests.
However, in spite of that slight flaw, I have really enjoyed reading it. It may depends on my appreciation of Oz novels and movie, and even if this book is not likely to mark the history of mathematical entertainment, it remains a worthy reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Your mental mathematical muscles will be stretched, April 22, 2008

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Clifford Pickover is a fountain of ideas, and in this book, he presents a set of puzzles and problems that display some of those ideas. They range from the simple to the hard, and the premise is that Dorothy has been abducted by the alien Dr. Oz and his assistant Mr. Plex. Dr. Oz presents the puzzles to Dorothy with the general caveat that she will be rewarded if she can solve them. All of the puzzles are given a difficulty rating, although there are times when the rating seems inaccurate.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and got so involved with a few of the problems that I used them as the basis for a presentation I made to a gathering of college and university mathematicians. It will stretch your mental mathematical muscles.