To Mock a Mockingbird - Couverture souple

Smullyan, Raymond M.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 019286095X ISBN 13 : 9780192860958

Editeur : Oxford Paperbacks, 1990

Synopsis

A collection of entertaining and challenging logic puzzles which make accessible some of the most important and complex mathematical ideas of our time. The author creates a realm of characters who either always tell the truth or always lie, and sets a variety of problems for truth-seekers. He also investigates combinatory logic, in an adventure which culminates in Godel's famous theorem. Written by the author of "Forever Undecided", this book will appeal to puzzle lovers and to students of logic and mathematics.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

In this entertaining and challenging collection of logic puzzles, Raymond Smullyan -- author of Forever Undecided -- continues to delight and astonish us with his gift for making available, in the thoroughly pleasurable form of puzzles, some of the most important mathematical thinking of our time. In the first part of the book, he transports us once again to that wonderful realm where knights, knaves, twin sisters, quadruplet brothers, gods, demons, and mortals either always tell the truth or always lie, and where truth-seekers are set a variety of fascinating problems. The section culminates in an enchanting and profound metapuzzle in which Inspector Craig of Scotland Yard gets involved in a search for the Fountain of Youth on the Island of Knights and Knaves. In the second part of To Mock a Mockingbird, we accompany the Inspector on a summer-long adventure into the field of combinatory logic (a branch of logic that plays an important role in computer science and artificial intelligence). His adventure, which includes enchanted forests, talking birds, bird sociologists, and a classic quest, provides for us along the way the pleasure of solving puzzles of increasing complexity until we reach the Master Forest and -- thanks to Godel's famous theorem -- the final revelation.

Biographie de l'auteur

Raymond Smullyan, a well-known mathematician and logician and the author of many books, is Oscar Ewing Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University and Professor Emeritus of the City University of New York-Lehman College and Graduate Center.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford Paperbacks
• Date d'édition: 1990
• ISBN 10: 019286095X
• ISBN 13: 9780192860958
• Reliure: Broché
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible