Mathematical Cranks (Spectrum)

by Underwood Dudley (Author)

6 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0883855072

ISBN-10: 0883855070

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A delightful collection of articles about people who claim they have achieved the mathematically impossible (squaring the circle, duplicating the cube); people who think they have done something they have not (proving Fermat's Last Theorem); people who pray in matrices; people who find the American Revolution ruled by the number 57; people who have in common eccentric mathematical views, some mild (thinking we should count by 12s instead of 10s), some bizarre (thinking that second-order differential equations will solve all problems of economics, politics and philosophy). This is a truly unique book. It is written with wit and style and is a part of folk mathematics.

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'A delightful collection of true accounts of individuals who claim to have achieved the mathematically impossible ... It is hard to put down and provides topics for an unending series of interesting discussions. The organization and breadth of the book are impressive, supported by a helpful index and a list of resources that encourage further explorations. A classic.' Choice

'Dudley Underwood extracts insights from an astonishing variety of examples.' Robert Matthews, New Scientist

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Product details

Series: Spectrum
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: The Mathematical Association of America (September 1, 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0883855070
ISBN-13: 978-0883855072
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 6 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #283 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Popular & Elementary > Arithmetic
- #394 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Logic & Brain Teasers
- #5137 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics

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A great, humorous collection of math "crank" stories.

ByBill M.on January 11, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If you're a scientist or somebody who just likes to surf the internet for articles and forums about science, then you've no doubt run into "cranks". These include people into pseudo-science, conspiracy theorists, and others who keep pushing for crazy ideas that really have no basis in the scientific method. Even after their claims have been debunked, that doesn't stop them; it only makes them more determined to find excuses to rationalize away the opposing explanations from scientists, and keep trying to push their hogwash as being "science". Many of them self-publish their own books, complete with incomprehensible sentences and no real use of established scientific terms, symbols and nomenclature. When defeated, quite often they'll end up responding to the real scientists with the excuse of "Well you can't be 100% sure that you're correct, and you can't 100% prove that my crazy idea is wrong. Therefore we're at a stalemate, and there's still a chance that I'm correct!" Ugh.

You would think that this wouldn't happen in mathematics, since mathematics deals with the abstract and pure logic, not experimentation, and can thus offer an irrefutable proof on why a theorem is true or false. So since we have the mathematical proof that pi is irrational, then that should settle it, right? Unfortunately, mathematical cranks do exist. And that's who this book is about.

The author has collected dozens and dozens of different examples of works from mathematical cranks, and compiled them all here. The people's last names have been hidden. But you'll see some jaw-droppingly crazy proposals sent in to various universities and math periodicals. Each example is, on average, just a few pages long, complete with a background story from the author. You can read it from beginning to end, or just flip around to the different examples. Geeky math humor at its best!

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Breezy and enjoyable

ByDaniel H. BigelowVINE VOICEon April 22, 2005

Format: Paperback

In this book, math professor Underwood Dudley catalogues the characteristics and errors of mathematical cranks. These are the people, usually mathematical amateurs, who believe they have done the impossible: squared the circle, calculated a different value of pi (or in some cases, several different values), and so forth. Math has the advantage over darn near every other human system that one can absolutley prove these people are wrong, but that doesn't stop a true crank.

I am no math whiz, and a lot of this book is over my head. But I am a crank enthusiast (if you are, too, the best World Wide Web cranks can be found at Crank.net, with which I have no affiliation). What interests me most in this book, other than Dudley's enthusiastic and deft writing, are his catalogues of crank behavior -- for instance, how they can go from enthusiastic amateur to demented conspiracy theorist rather than simply admit nobody's paying attention to them because they're wrong. The math-oriented parts of the book are interesting case studies, and the crank-oriented parts have general application to all cranks, even of the non-mathematical variety. This makes for a useful and entertaining book.

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Mathematical impossibility does not deter some people.

ByA customeron January 7, 1999

Format: Paperback

A mathematical proof of the impossibility of doing something does not deter some people from claiming that they have done it. Dudley labels such people as cranks, and he describes many of them in this book. While the reading is entertaining, it is also somewhat depressing, in that no amount of logic or reason can convince a crank that their work is flawed. They give so many different reasons for why their work is rejected. Unfortunately, a crank never arrives at the real reason, namely that their work is simply wrong.

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A very fun book

ByA customeron August 17, 2000

Format: Paperback

On the one hand, mathematics is the great leveler of the sciences. Anyone can do mathematical research, with no equipment but pencil and paper. On the other hand, mathematics is the only science where something can be proven, irrefutably and for all time, to be impossible. These two ingredients make mathematics one of the most fertile grounds for inspiring crankery.
This book is not only entertaining, the broadness of its examples provides a fascinating insight into the mind of cranks. I couldn't put it down.

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Hilarious look at human foilbles and mathematics.

ByA customeron December 29, 1998

Format: Paperback

Underwood Dudly's book is great fun, especially if if you have ever tried to argue with someone impervious to reason. His very funny tales of encounters with mathematical cranks will probably sound familiar. You will also learn a lot about mathematical and scientific reasoning along with hilarious examples of how not to do mathematics. The author's points on how to identify and avoid cranks can serve readers well in all walks of life, not just mathematics.

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The Author is a Crank

ByRonald W. Satzon November 16, 2007

Format: Paperback

The author means well but is himself a crank. Albert Einstein said, "From the very beginning there has always been present the attempt to find a unifying theoretical basis for all these single sciences, consisting of a minimum of concepts and fundamental relationships, from which all the concepts and relationships of the single disciplines might be derived by logical process." Would the author call Einstein a "neo-Kantian"? Doubtful, but that's what he calls supporters of Dewey B. Larson--and these actually follow the philosophical teachings of Samuel Alexander, not Kant. Obviously the author has not carefully studied Larson's Reciprocal System--if he had, he would not have labeled Larson's work that of a "conceptual" crank. The real cranks in science are the modern physicists and astrophysicists who've given us the nuclear theory of the atom, black holes, worm holes, neutron stars, string theory, and quarks. It's time for real scientists to take their profession back from the fruits and nuts.

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