The Colossal Book of Mathematics by Martin Gardner

The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems by Martin Gardner (Author). No novice or math authority can be without this final compendium of America's finest-cherished mathematical expert. Whether discussing hexaflexagons or number idea, Klein bottles or the essence of "nothing," Martin Gardner has single-handedly created the sphere of "recreational mathematics." The Colossal Guide of Arithmetic collects collectively Gardner's most popular items from his legendary "Mathematical Video games" column, which ran in Scientific American for twenty-5 years. Gardner's array of absorbing puzzles and thoughts-twisting paradoxes opens mathematics as much as the world of giant, inspiring individuals to see past numbers and formulation and experience the application of mathematical rules to the mysterious world round them. With articles on matters starting from simple algebra to the twisting surfaces of Mobius strips, from an infinite recreation of Bulgarian solitaire to the unreachable dream of time travel, this quantity comprises a substantial and definitive monument to Gardner's effect on mathematics, science, and culture.

In its twelve sections, The Colossal Ebook of Math explores a variety of areas, every startlingly illuminated by Gardner's incisive expertise. Beginning with seemingly simple subjects, Gardner expertly guides us by sophisticated and wondrous worlds: by means of primary algebra we contemplate the mesmerizing, typically hilarious, linguistic and numerical prospects of palindromes; using simple geometry, he dissects the ideas of symmetry upon which the famend mathematical artist M. C. Escher constructs his distinctive, dizzying universe. Gardner, like few thinkers immediately, melds a rigorous scientific skepticism with a profound inventive and imaginative impulse. His gorgeous exploration of "The Church of the Fourth Dimension," for instance, bridges the disparate worlds of faith and science by brilliantly imagining the spatial chance of God's presence in the world as a fourth dimension, at once "in every single place and nowhere."

With boundless wisdom and his trademark wit, Gardner permits the reader to additional interact difficult matters like chance and sport principle which have plagued intelligent gamblers, and famous mathematicians, for centuries. Whether debunking Pascal's wager with primary chance, making visual music with fractals, or uncoiling a "knotted doughnut" with introductory topology, Gardner continuously displays his fierce intelligence and delicate humor. His articles confront both the comfortingly mundane-"Generalized Ticktacktoe" and "Sprouts and Brussel Sprouts"-and the quakingly summary-"Hexaflexagons," "Nothing," and "Everything." He navigates these staggeringly obscure topics with a deft intelligence and, with addendums and instructed reading lists, he informs these classic articles with new insight.

Admired by scientists and mathematicians, writers and readers alike, Gardner's huge knowledge and burning curiosity reveal themselves on every page. The fruits of a lifelong devotion to the wonders of mathematics, The Colossal Guide of Arithmetic is the largest and most comprehensive math guide ever assembled by Gardner and stays an indispensable volume for the beginner and expert alike. 

The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems 

Martin Gardner (Author)

704 pages

W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition, Third Printing edition (September 10, 2001)

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