- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books (8 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1846682924
- ISBN-13: 978-1846682926
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 13.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 75,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures
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Product Description
Review
`An ideal present for anyone addicted to Sudoku-like puzzles and beginning to wonder what might lie beyond' --Spectator
Book Description
A new trove of entrancing numbers and delightful mathematical nibbles for adventurous minds
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Math can be interesting and fun.,
By
This review is from: Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures (Hardcover)
Ian Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures is the successor of Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities by the same author. A cynic might suspect that it will contain leftovers for which there was no more space in Cabinet, but that is certainly not the case. There are fewer well known topics than in Cabinet, but that makes the book only more interesting.
There are more than 150 entries. The shortest consists of only one sentence (Halloween=Christmas), but the longest extends over eight pages. They are not all equally interesting, but Stewart writes in a very engaging way and can make even complicated things understandable. There are entries on the history of mathematics (e.g, the abacus, the equal sign, Egyptian fractions, the slide ruler, Hilbert's problems, the symbol for pi, the factorial symbol, and the square root symbol), entries on number theory (e.g., the rule of eleven, the Catalan conjecture, congruent numbers, the Green-Tao theorem, Euler's conjecture, and primes), entries on topology (e.g., hexaflexagons, flexible polyhedrons, the bellow's conjecture, the hairy ball theorem, horned spheres, knots, the ham sandwich theorem, the four color theorem, and how to turn a sphere inside out), and entries on applications of mathematics (e.g., codes and CAT scans). There are also quite a few entries that are really about physics (e.g., falling cats, antimatter, celestial resonance, global warming, and Lagrange points), which I found less interesting. There are only a few entries on well knows topics (e.g, magic squares and the Klein bottle) and I found only one entry copied from one of his other books (Common knowledge from Math Hysteria). For readers that want to become active there are many puzzles. Some are quite simple, others will keep you occupied for many hours. No less than 67 pages are devoted to the solutions. Personally I like How to Cut a Cake and Math Hysteria better, because these book delve deeper in the problems that they discuss, but I still highly recommend Hoard of Mathematical Treasures.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great little book,
By
This review is from: Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures (Hardcover)
A really great book. Its precursor, "Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities", was a hard act to follow, but I think that "Hoard of Mathematical Treasures" is even better. There's something interesting, thought-provoking or amusing on every one of its 339 pages. I also appreciate its modest dimensions so that you can take it along in a bag to dip into on boring trips.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent, erudite, very well written, very well explained!,
By WheezingWeasel (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures (Hardcover)
I bought this book as a gift for a cousin who likes me, loves mathematics. I thought I'd cheekily be able to read it beforehand, and boy, does it delight! It certainly gripped me: the puzzles are absorbing and presented in such an approachable manner. It even got me, formally trained in the subject, interested in looking up those other areas I've not looked at in years. And the recipient of the gift felt likewise too.
This is certainly popular science writing at its finest, a joy for the reader, and an inspiration for us all scientists/mathematicians/engineers who sometimes work with the public.
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