[PDF] Undiluted Hocus Pocus eBook

Author : Martin Gardner
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 44,70 MB
Release : 2015-11-03
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0691169691

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The autobiography of the beloved writer who inspired a generation to study math and science Martin Gardner wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and published more than seventy books on topics as diverse as magic, religion, and Alice in Wonderland. Gardner's illuminating autobiography is a candid self-portrait by the man evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould called our "single brightest beacon" for the defense of rationality and good science against mysticism and anti-intellectualism. Gardner takes readers from his childhood in Oklahoma to his varied and wide-ranging professional pursuits. He shares colorful anecdotes about the many fascinating people he met and mentored, and voices strong opinions on the subjects that matter to him most, from his love of mathematics to his uncompromising stance against pseudoscience. For Gardner, our mathematically structured universe is undiluted hocus-pocus—a marvelous enigma, in other words. Undiluted Hocus-Pocus offers a rare, intimate look at Gardner’s life and work, and the experiences that shaped both.

Author : Martin Gardner
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 30,50 MB
Release : 2014-12-02
Category : Games & Activities
ISBN : 0486801179

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Famed puzzle expert explains math behind a multitude of mystifying tricks: card tricks, stage "mind reading," coin and match tricks, counting out games, geometric dissections, etc. More than 400 tricks. 135 illustrations.

Author : Martin Gardner
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 37,68 MB
Release : 2012-05-04
Category : Science
ISBN : 0486131629

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Fair, witty appraisal of cranks, quacks, and quackeries of science and pseudoscience: hollow earth, Velikovsky, orgone energy, Dianetics, flying saucers, Bridey Murphy, food and medical fads, and much more.

Author : G. K. Chesterton
Publisher : The Floating Press
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 25,70 MB
Release : 2009-04-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1775414728

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The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a futuristic novel set in London in 1984. Chesterton envisions neither great technological leaps nor totalitarian suppression. Instead, England is ruled by a series of randomly selected Kings, because people have become entirely indifferent. The joker Auberon Quin is crowned and he instates elaborate costumes for every sector of London. All the city's provosts are bored with the idea except for the earnest young Adam Wayne - the Napoleon of Notting Hill.

Author : Alfred S. Posamentier
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 35,67 MB
Release : 2013-08-13
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 1616147482

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Two veteran math educators demonstrate how some "magnificent mistakes" had profound consequences for our understanding of mathematics' key concepts. In the nineteenth century, English mathematician William Shanks spent fifteen years calculating the value of pi, setting a record for the number of decimal places. Later, his calculation was reproduced using large wooden numerals to decorate the cupola of a hall in the Palais de la Découverte in Paris. However, in 1946, with the aid of a mechanical desk calculator that ran for seventy hours, it was discovered that there was a mistake in the 528th decimal place. Today, supercomputers have determined the value of pi to trillions of decimal places. This is just one of the amusing and intriguing stories about mistakes in mathematics in this layperson's guide to mathematical principles. In another example, the authors show that when we "prove" that every triangle is isosceles, we are violating a concept not even known to Euclid - that of "betweenness." And if we disregard the time-honored Pythagorean theorem, this is a misuse of the concept of infinity. Even using correct procedures can sometimes lead to absurd - but enlightening - results. Requiring no more than high-school-level math competency, this playful excursion through the nuances of math will give you a better grasp of this fundamental, all-important science.

Author : Persi Diaconis
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 25,26 MB
Release : 2015-10-13
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN : 0691169772

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"Magical Mathematics reveals the secrets of amazing, fun-to-perform card tricks--and the profound mathematical ideas behind them--that will astound even the most accomplished magician. Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham provide easy, step-by-step instructions for each trick, explaining how to set up the effect and offering tips on what to say and do while performing it. Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today's mathematical knowledge. For example, the Gilbreath principle--a fantastic effect where the cards remain in control despite being shuffled--is found to share an intimate connection with the Mandelbrot set. Other card tricks link to the mathematical secrets of combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, topology, the Riemann hypothesis, and even Fermat's last theorem. Diaconis and Graham are mathematicians as well as skilled performers with decades of professional experience between them. In this book they share a wealth of conjuring lore, including some closely guarded secrets of legendary magicians. Magical Mathematics covers the mathematics of juggling and shows how the I Ching connects to the history of probability and magic tricks both old and new. It tells the stories--and reveals the best tricks--of the eccentric and brilliant inventors of mathematical magic. Magical Mathematics exposes old gambling secrets through the mathematics of shuffling cards, explains the classic street-gambling scam of three-card monte, traces the history of mathematical magic back to the thirteenth century and the oldest mathematical trick--and much more"-

Author : Martin Gardner
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 618 pages
File Size : 15,73 MB
Release : 1997-07-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780312169497

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The definitive work of Martin Gardner's brilliant, seven-decades-long career, "The Night Is Large" collects 54 of the most significant essays by this popular writer best known for his "Mathematical Games" columns which appeared in "Scientific American" magazine for more than 25 years.

Author : Kevin Kelly
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 34,85 MB
Release : 2009-04-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 078674703X

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Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

Author : Arthur Engel
Publisher : American Mathematical Society
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 29,9 MB
Release : 2023-02-14
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 1470457032

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This is a mathematics book, not a programming book, although it explains Pascal to beginners. It is aimed at high school students and undergraduates with a strong interest in mathematics, and teachers looking for fresh ideas. It is full of diverse mathematical ideas requiring little background. It includes a large number of challenging problems, many of which illustrate how numerical computation leads to conjectures which can then be proved by mathematical reasoning. It is assumed that readers have a PC at their disposal.