Last Recreations (eBook)

Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications

Martin Gardner (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2007 | 1. Auflage
392 Seiten
Springer New York (Verlag)
978-0-387-30389-5 (ISBN)

Infos

"Of all of Martin Gardner's writings, none gained him a wider audience or was more central to his reputation than his Mathematical Recreations column in ""Scientific American"", which virtually defined the genre of popular mathematics writing for a generation. Flatland, Hydras and Eggs: Mathematical Mystifications will be the final collection of these columns, covering a period roughly from 1979 to Gardner's retirement as a regular columnist in 1986. The notable trend over Gardner's career is the increasing sophistication of the mathematics he has been able to translate into his famously lucid prose. These columns show him at the top of his form and are not to be missed by anyone with an interest in mathematics. As always in his published collections, Gardner includes letters received from mathematicians and other commenting on the ideas presented in the columns."

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Of all of Martin Gardner's writings, none gained him a wider audience or was more central to his reputation than his Mathematical Recreations column in "e;Scientific American"e;, which virtually defined the genre of popular mathematics writing for a generation. Flatland, Hydras and Eggs: Mathematical Mystifications will be the final collection of these columns, covering a period roughly from 1979 to Gardner's retirement as a regular columnist in 1986. The notable trend over Gardner's career is the increasing sophistication of the mathematics he has been able to translate into his famously lucid prose. These columns show him at the top of his form and are not to be missed by anyone with an interest in mathematics. As always in his published collections, Gardner includes letters received from mathematicians and other commenting on the ideas presented in the columns.

Inhalt

Preface 6
Contents 7
The Wonders of a Planiverse 9
Bulgarian Solitaire and Other Seemingly Endless Tasks 34
Fun with Eggs, Part I 51
Fun with Eggs, Part II 65
The Topology of Knots 72
M- Pire Haps 90
Directed Graphs and Cannibals 106
Dinner Guests, Schoolgirls, and Handcuffed Prisoners 126
The Monster and Other Sporadic Groups 144
The Power of the Pigeonhole 180
Strong Laws of Small Primes 194
Checker Recreations, Part I 209
Checker Recreations, Part II 223
Modulo Arithmetic and Hummer's Wicked Witch 235
Lavinia Seeks a Room and Other Problems 248
The Symmetry Creations of Scott Kim 268
Parabolas 286
Non-Euclidean Geometry 304
Voting Mathematics 317
A Toroidal Paradox and Other Problems 331
Minimal Steiner Trees 344
Trivalent Graphs, Snarks, and Boojums 360
Index 379

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.12.2007
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Anthologien
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Technik
• ISBN-10: 0-387-30389-8 / 0387303898
• ISBN-13: 978-0-387-30389-5 / 9780387303895