Buy new:
$29.96
FREE delivery Tuesday, July 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: CT Distributions LLC
$29.96
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, July 2 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$29.96 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$29.96
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Returnable Yes
Resolutions Eligible for refund or replacement
Return Window 30 days from delivery
Refund Timelines Typically, an advance refund will be issued within 24 hours of a drop-off or pick-up. For returns that require physical verification, refund issuance may take up to 30 days after drop-off or pick up. Where an advance refund is issued, we will re-charge your payment method if we do not receive the correct item in original condition. See details here.
Late fee A late fee of 20% of the item price will apply if you complete the drop off or pick up after the ‘Return By Date’.
Restocking fee A restocking fee may apply if the item is not returned in original condition and original packaging, or is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to Amazon or seller error. See details here.
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Returnable Yes
Resolutions Eligible for refund or replacement
Return Window 30 days from delivery
Refund Timelines Typically, an advance refund will be issued within 24 hours of a drop-off or pick-up. For returns that require physical verification, refund issuance may take up to 30 days after drop-off or pick up. Where an advance refund is issued, we will re-charge your payment method if we do not receive the correct item in original condition. See details here.
Late fee A late fee of 20% of the item price will apply if you complete the drop off or pick up after the ‘Return By Date’.
Restocking fee A restocking fee may apply if the item is not returned in original condition and original packaging, or is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to Amazon or seller error. See details here.

Return instructions

Item must be in original condition and packaging along with tag, accessories, manuals, and inserts. Unlock any electronic device, delete your account and remove all personal information.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$2.29
Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc... See less
$3.98 delivery July 3 - 5. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$29.96 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$29.96
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by glenthebookseller.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Julian Havil
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums Hardcover – April 21, 2008

by Julian Havil (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$29.96","priceAmount":29.96,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"29","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"96","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"npxIX1tGfRKxSXXJThiAwMM10jhRqHJMixEboPDGFJIzSRMxkFlnCgB1YdyQ8%2Fq3O1aeABPrJQnc7CgR06M0xle3z7apigFviFwctLPtvqu8n9ioe9Z%2BXt21uOUWQxkq22ZDaNZzzoCC3sZLsEqNaKOTRRQ5EUAsnUIc1YNzZW%2Fkitob7DXQer4i2ydXagG%2B","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$2.29","priceAmount":2.29,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"2","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"29","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"npxIX1tGfRKxSXXJThiAwMM10jhRqHJMXJz1%2BkblTKkao0WcCEMHIkIhRgRyjKHEUl0ZgPSBGdbbeeyXu9eYHH1Jxr5Qpx6g3rSLNKDOp6sjl5GGX3MIcGB23iVVZ0HQAaz2ep0dR5oWdpnPy%2FberuSJl4lshzLjoG33%2BE3JRS7BTbfrisSZ51G7gl81lzrx","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In Nonplussed!, popular-math writer Julian Havil delighted readers with a mind-boggling array of implausible yet true mathematical paradoxes. Now Havil is back with Impossible?, another marvelous medley of the utterly confusing, profound, and unbelievable―and all of it mathematically irrefutable.

Whenever Forty-second Street in New York is temporarily closed, traffic doesn't gridlock but flows more smoothly―why is that? Or consider that cities that build new roads can experience dramatic increases in traffic congestion―how is this possible? What does the game show Let's Make A Deal reveal about the unexpected hazards of decision-making? What can the game of cricket teach us about the surprising behavior of the law of averages? These are some of the counterintuitive mathematical occurrences that readers encounter in Impossible?

Havil ventures further than ever into territory where intuition can lead one astray. He gathers entertaining problems from probability and statistics along with an eclectic variety of conundrums and puzzlers from other areas of mathematics, including classics of abstract math like the Banach-Tarski paradox. These problems range in difficulty from easy to highly challenging, yet they can be tackled by anyone with a background in calculus. And the fascinating history and personalities associated with many of the problems are included with their mathematical proofs. Impossible? will delight anyone who wants to have their reason thoroughly confounded in the most astonishing and unpredictable ways.

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    264 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 21, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780691131313
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0691131313
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Havil once again explores a variety of mathematical results and problems that at first appear to be self-contradictory, or stated in such a way that no solution could exist. In each case, he then either sketches a proof of why the result is not contradictory, or explains the solution to the seemingly unsolvable problem . . . . Like a magician revealing secrets, Havil maintains this sense through most chapters, dropping the punch line at just the right moment."---J.T. Noonan, Choice

"This sequel to the author's book Nonplussed! supplies another set of brain-stretching problems and ideas. Its subtitle is 'Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums'; the surprise often consisting of the fact that it is possible to obtain a solution at all! . . . This is another excellent book by Havil, following in the Martin Gardner tradition."---Alan Stevens, Mathematics Today

"Julian Havil has quietly joined the ranks of the very best writers of popular mathematics. His two volume set Impossible? and Nonplussed! Mathematical Proof of Implausible Ideas not only belong in every library, but in the hands of every young person interested in mathematics and especially in the hands of their teachers."---John J. Watkins, Mathematical Intelligencer

"Impossible? is an immensely thought-provoking book. Even if you skim or skip the more complex abstract math, you may have a hard time letting these puzzles go, so strongly do they flout common sense. You'll just have to do your best to put them our of your mind when you need to get some sleep, but if the situation ever arises, be sure to take Monty up on his offer."---Ray Bert, Civil Engineering

"I would highly recommend this book as a reference for the mathematician who likes recreational mathematics, or as a good read for the recreational enthusiast with a penchant for more rigor."---Blair Madore, MAA Reviews

Review

"Julian Havil's Impossible? is a superb discussion of problems easily understood by a high schooler, yet with solutions so counterintuitive as to seem impossible. Topics include the notorious Monty Hall three-door problem, the Gamow-Stern elevator paradoxes, the Kruskal count card trick, Cantor's 'paradise' of alephs, and the mind-blowing Banach-Tarski paradox, all analyzed in depth by a master who does not hold back equations that provide elegant proofs. There are surprises on almost every page."―Martin Gardner

"This book is a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read. Havil offers an engaging collection of counterintuitive results and seemingly impossible problems. Some of the material is truly astonishing, and the author conveys his sense of surprise very effectively. Each problem ultimately yields to careful and well-presented analysis. The history of many of the results is discussed, and further references are provided."―Nick Hobson, creator of the award-winning Web site Nick's Mathematical Puzzles

"I thought it impossible for Julian Havil to exceed Nonplussed!, his previous collection of perplexing math puzzlers. And yet he has done just that with the sequel Impossible?, an accomplishment that has left me nonplussed."―Paul J. Nahin, author of An Imaginary Tale

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0691131317
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (April 21, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780691131313
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691131313
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Julian Havil

Julian Havil

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Finally I have decided to 'get a web page' and, thanks to Amazon,the procedure is very easy. I will try to add to it as time passes.

And so for some time I have failed to add anything useful on this page, for which I apologise. My hope is that the readers of my books will gain something of what I have gained by writing them. I do apologise for errors and omissions but have no control over Kindle versions, which seem worthy of typographical criticism. My current project is a book with working title 'Features of a Mathematical Landscape", which I hope will intrigue the intended reader... The last book, Curves for the Mathematically Curious, has met with a pretty positive response, for which I am most grateful. I am also grateful for support, as I am grateful for constructive criticism. If you have ideas for a book that would be appropriate for me to write, do say so.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
We don’t use a simple average to calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star. Our system gives more weight to certain factors—including how recent the review is and if the reviewer bought it on Amazon. Learn more
18 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amanda
5.0 out of 5 stars happy with purchase; correction
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2017
Verified Purchase
I am a math teacher searching for interesting examples to share with my students and fellow teachers. I recently purchased seven books on the topics of interesting math problems and puzzles, and, having skimmed them all and carefully read several of them, this is by far my favorite. I am very glad I purchased this book, which is the reason for the five star review. I have to agree with some of the other reviewers, however, that there are several typos that make the text much more difficult to read than it would otherwise be. I wanted to post an error here that I didn't see mentioned in other reviews, in case it helps someone. In Ch 6, the Seven-Hat Problem, the list of 16 codewords (binary vectors of length 7) has two pairs of duplicates. If you read the chapter, you realize this is not possible. The codewords 0101110 and 1011010 are both listed twice; I believe a correction is the to replace the duplicates with 0110010 and 1100011.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Hgnomentat
4.0 out of 5 stars you may be a little too surprised by these surprises to be surprised
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2008
Verified Purchase
i warn the potential purchaser that this may not be quite what you expect. There is a demand for substantial mathematical sophistication - which was a little beyond my level (i do have a doctorate, but not in math, and had to stop taking math courses after my sophomore year in college because matrix algebra was about all i could handle). i don't doubt that the book is delightful for those strong in math and i probably would give it 5 stars except that the title strikes me as a bit misleading. probably your average college graduate would not know enough to find these conundrums counterintuitive, and the solutions, likewise, are probably not much more surprising than that the conundrums are supposedly common-sensical. not a criticism of the material, more of the packaging.

james h waters phd
41 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Rich Coco
5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining and stimulating
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2009
Verified Purchase
fun book. well written, well organized, interesting selection of topics. if you enjoy recreational mathematics and logic puzzles, buy and enjoy.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Henry S. Valk
3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Topics, Careless Editing
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2011
Verified Purchase
As expected from this author, the topics are well chosen and the counter-intuitive results intriguing.
However,contrary to my experience with Havil's earlier books, "Impossible" seems to reflect hasty preparation and/or careless editing, hence the lower rating. An earlier review referred to the error in the proof of the irrationality of log2. To this can be added a number of others. For example: wrong signs in the Taylor expansions of sinx and cosx (p.226);numerous P(n-k,k)instead of P(n-k-1)in the coin toss discussion (p.97); log n - 2/3 instead of log n -3/2 (p.101);over-counting by a factor 3! in the mathematical expression for the number of ways of picking one pair(not two pairs as stated)in a poker hand, and the omission of -40 and -1098240 in the last line of the odd card discussion (p.106). While It should be emphasized that this is not a book for the casual reader,even the reader with some measure of mathematical sophistication will be frustrated by such errors and misprints;certainly, an unnecessary impediment to what could be a enjoyable journey for one seriously interested in mathematical conundrums.
14 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Peter Gacs
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked what I saw so far.
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2009
I am a mathematician, so my opinion is probably biased. This is the kind
of popular book on mathematics that would have appealed to me in my young age
and seems still very enjoyable and instructive (I have only skimmed it so far).
The main reason for my review is that, the book not giving an email address for the
author, this place seemed the easiest one to point out a computation error
that invalidates the proof of irrationality of log 2 in the appendix.
The correct computation will lead to a correct proof, but a different one, which
as expected, must use the uniqueness of prime factorization.
13 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jay P
3.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking, with some flaws
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2012
This is an interesting and thought-provoking book that presents a series of mathematical problems and puzzles, the answers to which are often surprising. It is a book from which most people (who read it thoroughly) would learn about some interesting areas of mathematics, and discover new ways to look at some perhaps already-familiar topics.

Understanding much of what the author is saying requires some background in math, but definitely not a degree in the subject. An introductory course in calculus would be helpful, because the book does use lots of simple calculus, and some familiarity with basic probability ideas would also be good to have. (I should admit, however, that I didn't fully understand either of the last two short chapters, so there are some areas that are more advanced.) Someone with less of a math background would still be able to understand some of the problems, at least partly (for instance, anyone who has played poker would be able to understand the gist of what he shows about the effect of wild cards) and get something out of the book, but would have a hard time following many of the series of equations - which are used to demonstrate what the author is saying and which help to explain the reason behind a surprising result.

There are, unfortunately, a number of errors in some of the mathematical expressions and equations, which made the book more difficult and frustrating to read: sometimes, I thought I was misunderstanding something, when the problem was that the algebra was wrong. There are also some places where the author's explanation is too short, isn't clear, or where an equation doesn't reflect what is said in the text. This seems like it would be more confusing to a reader with a less-advanced background.

Despite these reservations, I still found the book to be worth reading. Mostly, it isn't fast or easy reading, but it's a book that taught me a few things, often stimulated my thinking, and I still find myself pondering the implications of some of the chapters.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
mbl
2.0 out of 5 stars Errors
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2014
There are errors everywhere and many things are obscure. You simply can't read this book all the way through. You can pick some pieces here and there though.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Maurizio Codogno
5.0 out of 5 stars Dopo il successo di Nonplussed!, un altro bel libro
Reviewed in Italy on March 2, 2011
Verified Purchase
Il secondo libro di "finti paradossi matematici" di Julian Havil, dopo  Nonplussed! , ha l'allitterativo sottotitolo "Surprising Solution to Counterintuitive Conundrums". Anche qui i vari capitoli presentano fatti matematici più o meno noti che a prima vista lasciano perplesso il lettore, anche se non digiuno di matematica, ma che sono assolutamente veri. Il livello tecnico dei vari capitoli varia molto: temi come il teorema di Goodstein e il paradosso di Banach-Tarski sono a livello universitario, mentre la differenza tra conoscenza mutua e conoscenza comune, la legge di Benford, il paradosso di Simpson oppure il paradosso degli ascensori che vanno sempre in direzione opposta sono alla portata di chi abbia una formazione matematica a livello della scuola superiore.
Come sempre, Havil trova il giusto equilibrio tra la parte matematica "seria", quella che in genere viene sempre sottintesa nei libri classici di divulgazione matematica, e la parte per così dire più ricreativa, dove i risultati vengono presentati per stupire con gli effetti speciali. In questo modo il lettore può scegliere fino a che livello approfondire, cosa che non succede certo molto spesso.
In definitiva, un ottimo libro sia per la didattica che per i curiosi della matematica!
2 people found this helpful
 Report