Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums - Couverture rigide

Havil, Julian

 
9780691131313: Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0691131317 ISBN 13 : 9780691131313
Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2008

Synopsis

In "Nonplussed!", popular-math writer Julian Havil delighted readers with a mind-boggling array of implausible yet true mathematical paradoxes. Now Havil is back with "Impossible?", another marvelous medley of the utterly confusing, profound, and unbelievable - and all of it mathematically irrefutable. Whenever Forty-second Street in New York is temporarily closed, traffic doesn't gridlock but flows more smoothly - why is that? Or consider that cities that build new roads can experience dramatic increases in traffic congestion - how is this possible? What does the game show, "Let's Make A Deal" reveal about the unexpected hazards of decision-making?What can the game of cricket teach us about the surprising behavior of the law of averages? These are some of the counterintuitive mathematical occurrences that readers encounter in "Impossible?" Havil ventures further than ever into territory where intuition can lead one astray. He gathers entertaining problems from probability and statistics along with an eclectic variety of conundrums and puzzlers from other areas of mathematics, including classics of abstract math like the Banach-Tarski paradox. These problems range in difficulty from easy to highly challenging, yet they can be tackled by anyone with a background in calculus. And the fascinating history and personalities associated with many of the problems are included with their mathematical proofs. "Impossible?" will delight anyone who wants to have their reason thoroughly confounded in the most astonishing and unpredictable ways.

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À propos de l'auteur

Julian Havil is a retired former master at Winchester College, England, where he taught mathematics for thirty-three years. In addition to "Nonplussed!", he is the author of "Gamma: Exploring Euler's Constant" (both Princeton).

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Princeton University Press
Date d'édition
2008
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0691131317
ISBN 13 
9780691131313
Reliure
Relié
Numéro d'édition
1
Nombre de pages
264
Coordonnées du fabricant
Princeton University Press
https://press.princeton.edu/books

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