The Magical Maze: Seeing the World Through Mathematical Eyes

by Ian Stewart

Overview

Enter the magical maze of mathematics and explore the surprising passageways of a fantastical world where logic and imagination converge. For mathematics is a maze—a maze in your head—a maze of ideas, a maze of logic. And that maze in your mind is a powerful tool for understanding an even bigger maze—the one of cause and effect that we call "the universe." That is its special kind of magic. Real magic. Strange magic. Infinitely fascinating magic. Acclaimed author Ian Stewart leads you swiftly and humorously through the junctions, byways, and secret passages of the magical maze to reveal its beauty, surprise, and power. Along the way, he reveals the infinite possibilities that arise from what he calls "the two-way trade between the natural world and the human mind." If you’ve always loved mathematics, you will find endless delights in the twists and turns of The Magical Maze. If you’ve always hated mathematics, a trip through this marvelous book will do much to change your mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780471674498
Publisher:	Trade Paper Press
Publication date:	03/11/1998
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	284
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

IAN STEWART, Ph.D., has written and coauthored numerous books, including Life's Other Secret (Wiley), Does God Play Dice?, Fearful Symmetry, The Collapse of Chaos, and Nature's Numbers. He writes the "Mathematical Recreations" column in Scientific American, serves as mathematics consultant to New Scientist, and is a regular contributor to Discover and The Sciences. In 1995 Dr. Stewart received the Royal Society of England's Michael Faraday Medal for outstanding contributions to the public understanding of science.

Read an Excerpt

"Welcome to the maze.

A logical maze, a magical maze. A maze of the mind.

The maze is mathematics. The mind is yours. Let's see what happens when we put them together.

What is mathematics? What do mathematicians do?

What is a mathematician? Someone who does mathematics?

Not exactly. That's too easy an answer, and it creates too simple a maze—a circular loop of self-referential logic. No, a mathematician is more than just somebody who does mathematics. Think of it this way: what is a businessperson? Someone who does business? Yes, but not just that. A businessperson is someone who sees an opportunity for doing business where the rest of us see nothing; while we're complaining that there's no restaurant in the area, he or she is organizing a telephone pizza delivery service. Similarly, a mathematician is someone who sees opportunities for doing mathematics that the rest of us miss.

I want to open your mind to some of these opportunities."—from The Magical Maze

Table of Contents

The Magic of Numbers.

Panthers Don't Like Porridge.

Marilyn and the Goats.

The Slime Mould Saga.

The Pattern of Tiny Feet.

Turing's Train Set.

Queen Dido's Hide.

Gallery of Monsters.

Exit.

Pointers.

Directory.

Editorial Reviews

Written for the layman, this book uses a plethora of puzzles, riddles, and tricks from the Tower of Hanoi to Rubik's Cube to demonstrate mathematical concepts that range from basic math such as algebra and probability theory to more complex ideas including chaos and complexity theory, Fourier analysis, and G<:o>del's Theorem. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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