Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas
“A profusely illustrated, bemusingly unorthodox introduction to math.”—BooklistA book for the eternally curious, Coincidences fuses a professor’s understanding of the hidden mathematical skeleton of the universe with the sensibility of a stand-up comedian, making life’s big questions...
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“A profusely illustrated, bemusingly unorthodox introduction to math.”—BooklistA book for the eternally curious, Coincidences fuses a professor’s understanding of the hidden mathematical skeleton of the universe with the sensibility of a stand-up comedian, making life’s big questions accessible and compelling. Each chapter opens with a surprising insight—not a mathematic formula, but a common observation. From there, the authors leapfrog over math and anecdote toward profound ideas about nature, art, and music. Coincidences is a book for lovers of puzzles and posers of outlandish questions, lapsed math aficionados and the formula-phobic alike.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780393329315 (0393329313)
Publish date: October 17th 2006
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pages no: 288
Edition language: English
Oooh, so close. I wanted this book to be better than it is. It's a fine book, but I had, perhaps, unrealistic expectations. It introduces non-maths types to various mathematical concepts (chaos, infinity, etc.) in a way that is very accessible. But then it sort of dumps us there - "whee! wasn't...