Wonders of Numbers Adventures in Mathematics, Mind, and Meaning

by Pickover, Clifford A.

• ISBN13: 9780195133424
• ISBN10: 0195133420
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Thought-provoking mathematical mysteries, puzzles, games, and number theory problems of varying degrees of difficulty jam-pack the pages of this book, peppered throughout with illustrations that clarify many of the problems. 10 halftones. 191 line illustrations.

Author Biography

Clifford A. Pickover is Research Staff Member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. An associate editor of several journals, prolific inventor, and puzzle columnist for magazines such as Discover, Pickover is the author of many best-selling books on popular science topics. He lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.

Table of Contents

Part I Fun Puzzles and Quick Thoughts
Attack of the Amateurs	2	(4)
Why Don't We Use Roman Numerals Anymore?	6	(5)
In a Casino	11	(1)
The Ultimate Bible Code	12	(1)
How Much Blood?	13	(2)
Where Are the Ants?	15	(1)
Spidery Math	16	(2)
Lost in Hyperspace	18	(1)
Along Came a Spider	19	(1)
Numbers beyond Imagination	20	(2)
Cupid's Arrow	22	(1)
Poseidon Arrays	23	(1)
Scales of Justice	24	(2)
Mystery Squares	26	(1)
Quincunx	27	(6)
Jerusalem Overdrive	33	(1)
The Pipes of Papua	34	(4)
The Fractal Society	38	(3)
The Triangle Cycle	41	(1)
IQ-Block	42	(2)
Riffraff	44	(2)
Klingon Paths	46	(1)
Ouroboros Autophagy	47	(2)
Interview with a Number	49	(1)
The Dream-Worms of Atlantis	50	(2)
Satanic Cycles	52	(2)
Persistence	54	(1)
Hallucinogenic Highways	55	(3)
Part II Quirky Questions, Lists, and Surveys
Why Was the First Woman Mathematician Murdered?	58	(2)
What If We Receive Messages from the Stars?	60	(3)
A Ranking of the 5 Strangest Mathematicians Who Ever Lived	63	(3)
Einstein, Ramanujan, Hawking	66	(3)
A Ranking of the 8 Most Influential Female Mathematicians	69	(4)
A Ranking of the 5 Saddest Mathematical Scandals	73	(1)
The 10 Most Important Unsolved Mathematical Problems	74	(4)
A Ranking of the 10 Most Influential Mathematicians Who Ever Lived	78	(4)
What Is Godel's Mathematical Proof of the Existence of God?	82	(2)
A Ranking of the 10 Most Influential Mathematicians Alive Today	84	(4)
A Ranking of the 10 Most Interesting Numbers	88	(3)
The Unabomber's 10 Most Mathematical Technical Papers	91	(2)
The 10 Mathematical Formulas That Changed the Face of the World	93	(5)
The 10 Most Difficult-to-Understand Areas of Mathematics	98	(3)
The 10 Strangest Mathematical Titles Ever Published	101	(2)
The 15 Most Famous Transcendental Numbers	103	(3)
What Is Numerical Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?	106	(3)
Who Is the Number King?	109	(3)
What 1 Question Would You Add?	112	(1)
Cube Maze	113	(3)
Part III Fiendishly Difficult Digital Delights
Hailstone Numbers	116	(3)
The Spring of Khosrow Carpet	119	(2)
The Omega Prism	121	(2)
The Incredible Hunt for Double Smoothly Undulating Integers	123	(1)
Alien Snow: A Tour of Checkerboard Worlds	124	(6)
Beauty, Symmetry, and Pascal's Triangle	130	(4)
Audioactive Decay	134	(4)
Dr. Googol's Prime Plaid	138	(2)
Saippuakauppias	140	(2)
Emordnilap Numbers	142	(2)
The Dudley Triangle	144	(2)
Mozart Numbers	146	(1)
Hyperspace Prisons	147	(2)
Triangular Numbers	149	(3)
Hexagonal Cats	152	(4)
The X-Files Number	156	(2)
A Low-Calorie Treat	158	(3)
The Hunt for Elusive Squarions	161	(3)
Katydid Sequences	164	(1)
Pentagonal Pie	165	(2)
An A?	167	(4)
Humble Bits	171	(2)
Mr. Fibonacci's Neighborhood	173	(3)
Apocalyptic Numbers	176	(2)
The Wonderful Emirp, 1,597	178	(2)
The Big Brain of Brahmagupta	180	(2)
1,001 Scheherazades	182	(2)
73,939,133	184	(1)
⊎-Numbers from Los Alamos	185	(2)
Creator Numbers	187	(2)
Princeton Numbers	189	(4)
Parasite Numbers	193	(1)
Madonna's Number Sequence	194	(1)
Apocalyptic Powers	195	(1)
The Leviathan Number	196	(1)
The Safford Number: 365, 365, 365, 365, 365, 365	197	(1)
The Aliens from Independence Day	198	(3)
One Decillion Cheerios	201	(1)
Undulation in Monaco	202	(2)
The Latest Gossip on Narcissistic Numbers	204	(1)
The abcdefghij Problem	205	(1)
Grenade Stacking	206	(1)
The 450-Pound Problem	207	(2)
The Hunt for Primes in Pi	209	(1)
Schizophrenic Numbers	210	(2)
Perfect, Amicable, and Sublime Numbers	212	(4)
Prime Cycles and F	216	(1)
Cards, Frogs, and Fractal Sequences	217	(5)
Fractal Checkers	222	(2)
Doughnut Loops	224	(2)
Everything You Wanted to Know about Triangles but Were Afraid to Ask	226	(3)
Cavern Genesis as a Self-Organizing System	229	(4)
Magic Squares, Tesseracts, and Other Oddities	233	(6)
Faberge Eggs Synthesis	239	(4)
Beauty and Gaussian Rational Numbers	243	(4)
A Brief History of Smith Numbers	247	(1)
Alien Ice Cream	248	(4)
Part IV The Peruvian Collection
The Huascaran Box	252	(1)
The Intergalactic Zoo	253	(1)
The Lobsterman from Lima	254	(1)
The Incan Tablets	255	(2)
Chinchilla Overdrive	257	(1)
Peruvian Laser Battle	258	(1)
The Emerald Gambit	259	(1)
Wise Viracocha	260	(2)
Zoologic	262	(1)
Andromeda Incident	263	(2)
Yin or Yang	265	(1)
A Knotty Challenge at Tacna	266	(1)
An Incident at Chavin de Huantar	267	(1)
An Odd Symmetry	268	(2)
The Monolith at Madre de Dios	270	(1)
Amazon Dissection	271	(1)
3 Weird Problems with 3	272	(3)
Zen Archery	275	(1)
Treadmills and Gears	276	(2)
Anchovy Marriage Test	278	(3)
Further Exploring	281	(99)
Further Reading	380	(11)
About the Author	391	(2)
Index	393