Synopses & Reviews
Knowing that the most exciting math is
not taught in school, Professor Ian Stewart has spent years filling his cabinet with intriguing mathematical games, puzzles, stories, and factoids intended for the adventurous mind. This book reveals the most exhilarating oddities from Professor Stewarts legendary cabinet.
Inside, you will find hidden gems of logic, geometry, and probabilitylike how to extract a cherry from a cocktail glass (harder than you think), a pop-up dodecahedron, and the real reason why you cant divide anything by zero. Scattered among these are keys to Fermats last theorem, the Poincaré conjecture, chaos theory, and the P=NP problem (youll win a million dollars if you solve it). You never know what enigmas youll find in the Stewart cabinet, but theyre sure to be clever, mind-expanding, and delightfully fun.
Review
Booklist “[Armchair mathematicians] are certain to find pleasure in this cornucopia of puzzles, brainteasers, and digressions…. The ideal book for dispelling the supposed drudgery of mathematics with its real magic.”
New Scientist
“Stewart has a genius for explanation that allows details of the Poincaré conjecture and Riemann hypothesis to sit happily alongside a quip about a chicken crossing a Möbius strip…. Mathematics doesn’t come more entertaining than this.”
Chicago Tribune
“The exciting side of math – puzzles, games and thrilling oddities.”
Review
Booklist [Armchair mathematicians] are certain to find pleasure in this cornucopia of puzzles, brainteasers, and digressions.... The ideal book for dispelling the supposed drudgery of mathematics with its real magic.”
New Scientist
Stewart has a genius for explanation that allows details of the Poincaré conjecture and Riemann hypothesis to sit happily alongside a quip about a chicken crossing a Möbius strip.... Mathematics doesnt come more entertaining than this.”
Chicago Tribune
The exciting side of math puzzles, games and thrilling oddities.”
Science News
What positive integer is equal to its own Scrabble score when spelled out in full? Stewart...offers this and a hodgepodge of other puzzles, paradoxes, brainteasers, tricks, facts and jokes, which he accurately calls curiosities..”
IEEE Spectrum
Open one of the 179 drawers in Professor Stewarts cabinet, and you might find just a one-liner...or a seven-page essay on Fermats last theorem.... The book can be devoured in one giant gulp or savored, one curiosity at a time.”
The College Mathematics Journal
[A] high-speed, nonetheless in-depth romp through elementary and advanced mathematical topics, accessible to any interested reader willing to expend a little effort.”
Mathematics Teacher
The puzzles are entertaining.... The books topics, which will appeal to mathematics teachers at all levels, both amused and fascinated me.”
Synopsis
The popular mathematics author and former "New Scientist" columnist Stewart offers this challenging and fun collection of mathematical games, puzzles, stories, and more. 300 illustrations and diagrams.
Synopsis
From one of the worlds most beloved popular writers on mathematics, a fun and challenging collection of games, puzzles, stories, and more
About the Author
Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He has written over seventy books, many of which are popular accounts of science and mathematics. His writing has appeared in New Scientist, Discover, Scientific American, and many newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom. He lives in Coventry, England.