50 Visions of Mathematics

by Dara O' Briain, Sam Parc (Editor)

Overview

Relax: no one understands technical mathematics without lengthy training but we all have an intuitive grasp of the ideas behind the symbols. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), this book is designed to showcase the beauty of mathematics - including images inspired by mathematical problems - together with its unreasonable effectiveness and applicability, without frying your brain. The book is a collection of 50 original essays contributed by a wide variety of authors. It contains articles by some of the best expositors of the subject (du Sautoy, Singh and Stewart for example) together with entertaining biographical pieces and articles of relevance to our everyday lives (such as Spiegelhalter on risk and Elwes on medical imaging). The topics covered are deliberately diverse and involve concepts from simple numerology to the very cutting edge of mathematics research. Each article is designed to be read in one sitting and to be accessible to a general audience. There is also other content. There are 50 pictorial 'visions of mathematics' which were supplied in response to an open call for contributions from IMA members, Plus readers and the worldwide mathematics community. You'll also find a series of "proofs " of Phythagoras's Theorem - mathematical, literary and comedy - after this, you'll never think of Pythagoras the same way again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191005343
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Sam Parc studied mathematics and engineering in the UK, Germany and Australia and has previously worked at the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Manchester and Newcastle and at Imperial College London. She works for the UK's Institute of Mathematics and its Applications where she provides a passion for popularising mathematics. Her previous work has involved writing a mathematical agony aunt column in a provincial newspaper and maintaining a popular online mathematical magazine. She lives in Southend-on-Sea with her large family and dog, Benji. This is her first book.

Table of Contents

1. What's the problem with mathematics?, David Acheson2. The mathematics of messages, Alan J. Aw3. Decathlon: The art of scoring points, John D. Barrow4. Queen Dido and the mathematics of the extreme, Greg Bason5. Can strings tie things together?, David Berman6. Grooves and knuckleballs, Ken Bray7. Pigs didn't fly but swine flu, Ellen Brooks-Pollock and Ken Eames8. Bill Tutte: Unsung Bletchley hero, Chris Budd9. What's the use of a quadratic equation?, Chris Budd and Chris Sangwin10. Tony Hilton Royle Skyrme, Alan Champneys11. The mathematics of obesity, Carson C. Chow12. It's a small world really, Tony Crilly13. How does mathematics help at a murder scene?, Graham Divall14. Mathematics: The language of the universe, Marcus du Sautoy15. The troublesome geometry of CAT scanning, Richard Elwes16. The mathematics of sports gambling, Alistair FittPythagoras's Theorem: a217. A conversation with Freeman Dyson, Marianne Freiberger and Rachel Thomas18. A glass of bubbly, Paul Glendinning19. The influenza virus: It's all in the packaging, Julia Gog20. Mathematicians at the movies: Sherlock Holmes vs Professor Moriarty, Derek Moulton and Alain Goriely21. Solving the Bristol bridge problem, Thilo Gross22. All ravens are black: Puzzles and paradoxes in probability and statistics, David Hand23. The Tower of Hanoi: Where mathematics meets psychology, Andreas Hinz and Marianne Freiberger24. Career: A sample path, Philip Holmes25. Sweets in the jar, Steve Humble26. Mary Cartwright, Lisa Jardine27. The fallibility of mathematics, Adam Jasko28. Anecdotes of Dr Barrow, Tom Korner29. Finding Apollo, Adam Kucharski30. The golden ratio in astronomy and astrophysics, Mario Livio31. The high-power hypar, Peter Lynch32. This is not a carrot: Paraconsistent mathematics, Maarten McKubre-Jordens33. The mystery of Groombridge Place, Alexander Masters and Simon NortonPythagoras's Theorem: b234. Mysterious number 6174, Yutaka Nishiyama35. Percolating possibilities, Colva Roney-Dougal & Vince Vatter36. Milestones on a non-Euclidean journey, Caroline Series37. Simpson's rule, Simon Singh38. Risking your life, David Spiegelhalter39. Networks and illusions, Ian Stewart40. Emmy Noether: Against the odds, Danielle Stretch41. Of catastrophes and creodes: How maths benefits from collaboration with other fields, Paul Taylor42. Conic section hide and seek, Rachel Thomas43. Sir James Lighthill: A life in waves, Ahmer Wadee44. Fail safe or fail dangerous, Ahmer Wadee and Alan Champneys45. Leapfrogging into the future: How child's play is at the heart of weather and climate models, Paul Williams46. Motorway mathematics, Eddie Wilson47. The philosophy of applied mathematics, Phil Wilson48. Mighty Morphogenesis, Thomas Woolley49. Called to the barcode, Andrew Wrigley50. Roughly fifty-fifty?, Gunter ZieglerPythagoras's Theorem: c2

Editorial Reviews

"The authors and editors make the excellent decision to include equations when they are needed to explain the topic, yet even with that nearly all of the visions will be clear and understandable to readers with a high school mathematics background. Crisp and understandable diagrams are also used to great effectiveness. ... There are many uses for this book..." —MAA Reviews

From the Publisher