| Description | This is a book of mathematical oddities: games, puzzles, facts, numbers and delightful mathematical nibbles for the curious and adventurous mind.School maths is not the interesting part. The real fun is elsewhere. Like a magpie, Ian Stewart has collected the most enlightening, entertaining and vexing 'curiosities' of maths over the years...Now, the private collection is displayed in his cabinet.There are some hidden gems of logic, geometry and probability. Scattered among these are keys to unlocking the mysteries of Fermat's last theorem, the Four Colour Theorem, the Poincare Conjecture, chaos theory, fractals, complexity and the P/NP problem for which a million dollar prize is on offer. There are beguiling discoveries about familiar names and concepts like Pythagoras, prime numbers, and permutations as well as anecdotes about great mathematicians. Pull out the drawers of the Professor's cabinet and marvel at the puzzles, secrets and enigmas you'll find in them... |
