Coincidences, chaos, and all that math jazz : making light of weighty ideas / Edward B. Burger, Michael Starbird ; original illustrations by Alan Witschonke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burger, Edward B., 1963-

Contributor:

Starbird, Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Humor.

Mathematics.

Genre:

Humor.

Physical Description:

ix, 276 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, [2005]

Summary:

A Book for the Eternally Curious, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz fuses a professor's understanding of the hidden mathematical skeleton of the universe with the distorted sensibility of a stand-up comedian. Probability? Monkeys trying to achieve a finished script for Hamlet through random typing.

Overflowing with almost two hundred hand-drawn illustrations and diagrams, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz makes the big questions-and those you haven't even thought to ask-accessible and compelling. What happens when an infinite number of tired baseball players shows up at an infinite motel? And when their manager shows up? The fourth dimension is probed from angles never imagined in science fiction.

Each chapter opens with a surprising insight-not a mathematical formula, but a common observation. From this starting point, the authors leapfrog over math and anecdote toward profound ideas about nature, art, and music. Subconscious yearning for a sexy rectangle leads us to ponder the Greek Parthenon, which somehow bumps into Debussy's scales so convincingly that afterward it's difficult to even consider aesthetic forms without noticing their shadow math. This book is Fibonacci's Sequence and the Golden Ratio through the looking glass with a dash of Salvador Dali and David Letterman thrown in for good measure. It's also for lovers of puzzles and posers of outlandish questions, lapsed math aficionados and the formula phobic.

Sure, other books have probably considered the amorphous nature of our universe, but none has posed the question "Is it possible to remove a pair of sufficiently stretchable underwear without removing one's pants?" The answer is yes, and Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz has the adventurous spirit and irreverent philosophy to prove it-not to mention a handsome seven-part diagram of exactly how to do it. Read at your own risk.

Contents:

Understanding uncertainty : coincidences

Chaos, and confusion

Unbridled coincidences : likelihood, lady luck, and lady love

Chaos reigns : why we can't predict the future

Digesting life's data : statistical surprises

Embracing figures: sensing secrecy

Magnificent magnitudes, and nature's numbers

Secrets held, secrets revealed : cryptography decrypted

Sizing up numbers : how many? how big? how quick?

A synergy between nature and number : a search for

Pattern

Exploring aesthetics: sexy rectangles

Fiery fractals, and contortions of space

From precise beauty to pure chaos: picturing aesthetics

Through the lens of mathematics

Origami for the origamically challenged: from paper folding

To computers and fiery fractals

A twisted turn in an amorphous universe: an exploration of

An elasticized world

transcending reality: the fourth

Dimension and infinity

The universe next door: the magic of the fourth dimension

Moving beyond the confines of our nutshell: a journey into

Infinity

In search of something still larger: a journey beyond

Infinity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0393059456

OCLC:

60245869

Publisher Number:

9780393059458