Publisher's Synopsis
Opening another drawer in his Cabinet of Curiosities, renowned mathematics professor Ian Stewart presents a new medley of games, paradoxes, and riddles in Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures . With wit and aplomb, Stewart mingles casual puzzles with grander forays into ancient and modern mathematical thought. Amongst a host of arcane and astonishing facts about every kind of number from irrational and imaginary to complex and cuneiform, we learn: - How to organize chaos - How matter balances anti-matter - How to turn a sphere inside out (without creasing it) - How to calculate pi by observing the stars - ...and why you can't comb a hairy ball. Along the way Stewart offers the reader tantalizing glimpses of the mathematics underlying life and the universe. Mind-stretching, enlightening, and endlessly amusing, Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures will stimulate, delight, and enthrall.
