Figuring It Out: Entertaining Encounters with Everyday Math

✍ Scribed by Nuno Crato

• Publisher: Copernicus
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 238
• Edition: 2010
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a book of mathematical stories — funny and puzzling mathematical stories. They tell of villains who try to steal secrets, heroes who encode their messages, and mathematicians who spend years on end searching for the best way to pile oranges.

There are also stories about highway confusions occurring when the rules of Cartesian geometry are ignored, small-change errors due to ignorance of ancient paradoxes, and mistakes in calendars arising from poor numerical approximations.

This book is about the power and beauty of mathematics. It shows mathematics in action, explained in a way that everybody can understand. It is a book for enticing youngsters and inspiring teachers.

Nuno Crato is a leading science writer and mathematician, whose entertaining essays have won a number of international awards.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Figuring It Out: Entertaining Encounters with Everyday Math......Page 4
9783642048326......Page 5
Preface......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Everyday Matters......Page 12
The Dinner Table Algorithm......Page 14
Cutting the Christmas Cake......Page 18
Oranges and Computers......Page 22
When Two and Two Dont Make Four......Page 26
Getting More Intelligent Every Day......Page 30
The Other Lane Always Goes Faster......Page 34
Shoelaces and Neckties......Page 38
Number Puzzles......Page 42
Tossing a Coin......Page 46
The Switch......Page 50
Eubulides, The Heap and The Euro......Page 54
The Earth is Round......Page 58
How GPS Works......Page 60
Gear Wheels......Page 64
February 29......Page 68
The Nonius Scale......Page 72
Pedro Nunes Map......Page 76
Lighthouse Geometry......Page 82
Asteroids and Least Squares......Page 86
The Useful Man and the Genius......Page 90
Secret Affairs......Page 94
Alice and Bob......Page 96
The Origin of Public Keys......Page 97
Inviolate Cybersecrets......Page 100
Quantum Cryptography......Page 104
The FBI Wavelet......Page 108
The Enigma Machine......Page 112
Art and Geometry......Page 116
The Vitruvian Man......Page 118
The Golden Number......Page 122
The Geometry of A4 Paper Sizes......Page 126
The Strange Worlds of Escher......Page 130
Escher and the Mobius Strip......Page 134
Picasso, Einstein and the Fourth Dimension......Page 138
Pollock's Fractals......Page 142
Voronoi Diagrams......Page 148
The Platonic Solids......Page 152
Pythagorean Mosquitoes......Page 156
The Most Beautiful of All......Page 158
Mathematical Objects......Page 162
The Power of Math......Page 164
Doubts in the Realm of Certainty......Page 168
When Chance Enhances Reliability......Page 172
Putting the house in order......Page 175
The Difficulty of Chance......Page 178
Conjectures and Proofs......Page 182
Mr. Benford......Page 184
Financial Fractals......Page 190
Turings Test......Page 194
DNA Computers......Page 198
Magical Multiplication......Page 202
π Day......Page 204
The Best Job in the World......Page 208
Out of this World......Page 210
Electoral Paradoxes......Page 212
Bordas Paradox......Page 213
Condorcets Paradox......Page 214
The Melon Paradox......Page 216
The Cupcake Paradox......Page 218
Infinity......Page 220
Unfair Games......Page 222
Monsieur Bertrand......Page 224
Boy or Girl?......Page 226
A Puzzle for Christmas......Page 228
Crisis Time for Easter Eggs......Page 232
Index......Page 234