The tradition of honoring Martin Gardner continues with this edited collection of articles by those who have been inspired by Gardner to enter mathematics, to enter magic, to bring magic into their mathematics, or to bring mathematics into their magic. Contributing authors include world-leading puzzle designers, puzzle collectors, mathematicians, and magicians. The variety of articles includes card or magic tricks (with a mathematical trick behind them), the history behind given puzzles, mathematically interesting objects involving the number seven, and puzzles for the reader to solve. Specific puzzles discussed include tangram, 14-15 Puzzle, seven-coloring of the torus, packing circles, Crazy Elephant Dance, and more!

For disciplines concerned with human well-being, such as medicine, psychology, and law, statistics must be used in accordance with standards for ethical practice. A Statistical Guide for the Ethically Perplexed illustrates the proper use of probabilistic and statistical reasoning in the behavioral, social, and biomedical sciences. Designed to be consulted when learning formal statistical techniques, the text describes common instances of both correct and false statistical and probabilistic reasoning. Lauded for their contributions to statistics, psychology, and psychometrics, the authors make statistical methods relevant to readers day-to-day lives by including real historical situations that demonstrate the role of statistics in reasoning and decision making. The historical vignettes encompass the English case of Sally Clark, breast cancer screening, risk and gambling, the Federal Rules of Evidence, "high-stakes" testing, regulatory issues in medicine, difficulties with observational studies, ethics in human experiments, health statistics, and much more. In addition to these topics, seven U.S. Supreme Court decisions reflect the influence of statistical and psychometric reasoning and interpretation/misinterpretation. Exploring the intersection of ethics and statistics, this comprehensive guide assists readers in becoming critical and ethical consumers and producers of statistical reasoning and analyses. It will help them reason correctly and use statistics in an ethical manner.

This book unravels the mystery of Geometry in Origami with a unique approach: 64 Polyhedra designs, each made from a single square sheet of paper, no cuts, no glue; each polyhedron the largest possible from the starting size of square and each having an ingenious locking mechanism to hold its shape. The author covers the five Platonic solids (cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron and dodecahedron). There are ample variations with different color patterns and sunken sides. Dipyramids and Dimpled Dipyramids, unexplored before this in Origami, are also covered. There are a total of 64 models in the book. All the designs have an interesting look and a pleasing folding sequence and are based on unique mathematical equations.

The classic results obtained by Godel, Tarski, Kleene, and Church in the early thirties are the finest flowers of symbolic logic. They are of fundamental importance to those investigations of the foundations of mathematics via the concept of a formal system that were inaugurated by Frege, and of obvious significance to the mathematical disciplines, such as computability theory, that developed from them.
Derived from courses taught by the author over several years, this new exposition presents all of the results with their original proofs and central concepts in a manner that is unified by a systematic grounding of the notion of effectiveness in the semantics of the existential quantifier. Logicians and non-mathematicians, repelled by detail which is not obviously relevant in the standard textbooks, will be able to reach the heart of the matter with a minimum of fuss.

Physics World's 'Book of the Year' for 2016 An Entertaining and Enlightening Guide to the Who, What, and Why of String Theory, now also available in an updated reflowable electronic format compatible with mobile devices and e-readers. During the last 50 years, numerous physicists have tried to unravel the secrets of string theory. Yet why do these scientists work on a theory lacking experimental confirmation? Why String Theory? provides the answer, offering a highly readable and accessible panorama of the who, what, and why of this large aspect of modern theoretical physics. The author, a theoretical physics professor at the University of Oxford and a leading string theorist, explains what string theory is and where it originated. He describes how string theory fits into physics and why so many physicists and mathematicians find it appealing when working on topics from M-theory to monsters and from cosmology to superconductors.

Join the Cryptokids as they apply basic mathematics to make and break secret codes. This book has many hands-on activities that have been tested in both classrooms and informal settings. Classic coding methods are discussed, such as Caesar, substitution, Vigen and multiplicative ciphers as well as the modern RSA. Math topics covered include: - Addition and Subtraction with, negative numbers, decimals, and percentages - Factorization - Modular Arithmetic - Exponentiation - Prime Numbers - Frequency Analysis.The accompanying workbook, The Cryptoclub Workbook: Using Mathematics to Make and Break Secret Codes provides students with problems related to each section to help them master the concepts introduced throughout the book. A PDF version of the workbook is available at no charge on the download tab, a printed workbook is available for $19.95 (K00701). The teacher manual can be requested from the publisher by contacting the Academic Sales Manager, Susie Carlisle

The magnum opus of one of the worlds leading origami artists, the second edition of Origami Design Secrets reveals the underlying concepts of origami and how to create original origami designs. Containing step-by-step instructions for 26 models, this book is not just an origami cookbook or list of instructions it introduces the fundamental building blocks of origami, building up to advanced methods such as the combination of uniaxial bases, the circle/river method, and tree theory. With corrections and improved illustrations, this new expanded edition also covers uniaxial box pleating, introduces the new design technique of hex pleating, and describes methods of generalizing polygon packing to arbitrary angles. With coverage spanning the foundations of origami construction and advanced methods using both paper and pencil and custom-built free software, Origami Design Secrets helps readers cultivate the intuition and skills necessary to develop their own designs. It takes them beyond merely following a recipe to crafting a work of art.

This book discusses how to design "good" geometric puzzles: two-dimensional dissection puzzles, polyhedral dissections, and burrs. It outlines major categories of geometric puzzles and provides examples, sometimes going into the history and philosophy of those examples. The author presents challenges and thoughtful questions, as well as practical design and woodworking tips to encourage the reader to build his own puzzles and experiment with his own designs. Aesthetics, phychology, and mathematical considerations all factor into the definition of the quality of a puzzle.

Mathematics in Games, Sports, and Gambling: The Games People Play, Second Edition demonstrates how discrete probability, statistics, and elementary discrete mathematics are used in games, sports, and gambling situations. With emphasis on mathematical thinking and problem solving, the text draws on numerous examples, questions, and problems to explain the application of mathematical theory to various real-life games.This updated edition of a widely adopted textbook considers a number of popular games and diversions that are mathematically based or can be studied from a mathematical perspective. Requiring only high school algebra, the book is suitable for use as a textbook in seminars, general education courses, or as a supplement in introductory probability courses.New in this Edition: Many new exercises, including basic skills exercises More answers in the back of the book Expanded summary exercises, including writing exercises More detailed examples, especially in the early chapters An expansion of the discrete adjustment technique for binomial approximation problems New sections on chessboard puzzles that encourage students to develop graph theory ideas New review material on relations and functions Exercises are included in each section to help students understand the various concepts. The text covers permutations in the two-deck matching game so derangements can be counted. It introduces graphs to find matches when looking at extensions of the five-card trick and studies lexicographic orderings and ideas of encoding for card tricks.The text also explores linear and weighted equations in the section on the NFL passer rating formula and presents graphing to show how data can be compared or displayed. For each topic, the author includes exercises based on real games and actual sports data.

A day does not go by without a news article reporting some amazing breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI). Many philosophers, futurists, and AI researchers have conjectured that human-level AI will be developed in the next 20 to 200 years. If these predictions are correct, it raises new and sinister issues related to our future in the age of intelligent machines. Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach directly addresses these issues and consolidates research aimed at making sure that emerging superintelligence is beneficial to humanity. While specific predictions regarding the consequences of superintelligent AI vary from potential economic hardship to the complete extinction of humankind, many researchers agree that the issue is of utmost importance and needs to be seriously addressed. Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach discusses key topics such as: AI-Completeness theory and how it can be used to see if an artificial intelligent agent has attained human level intelligence Methods for safeguarding the invention of a superintelligent system that could theoretically be worth trillions of dollars Self-improving AI systems: definition, types, and limits The science of AI safety engineering, including machine ethics and robot rights Solutions for ensuring safe and secure confinement of superintelligent systems The future of superintelligence and why long-term prospects for humanity to remain as the dominant species on Earth are not great Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach is designed to become a foundational text for the new science of AI safety engineering. AI researchers and students, computer security researchers, futurists, and philosophers should find this an invaluable resource.

The connections between origami, mathematics, science, technology, and education have been a topic of considerable interest now for several decades. While many individuals have happened upon discrete connections among these fields during the twentieth century, the field really took off when previously isolated individuals began to make stronger connections with each other through a series of conferences exploring the links between origami and "the outside world." The Fourth International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics, and Education (4OSME), held in September, 2006, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, brought together an unprecedented number of researchers presenting on topics ranging from mathematics, to technology, to educational uses of origami, to fine art, and to computer programs for the design of origami. Selected papers based on talks presented at that conference make up the book you hold in your hands.

Exploring a vast array of topics related to computation, Computing: A Historical and Technical Perspective covers the historical and technical foundation of ancient and modern-day computing. The book starts with the earliest references to counting by humans, introduces various number systems, and discusses mathematics in early civilizations. It guides readers all the way through the latest advances in computer science, such as the design and analysis of computer algorithms. Through historical accounts, brief technical explanations, and examples, the book answers a host of questions, including: Why do humans count differently from the way current electronic computers do? Why are there 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, etc.? Who invented numbers, when were they invented, and why are there different kinds? How do secret writings and cryptography date back to ancient civilizations? Innumerable individuals from many cultures have contributed their talents and creativity to formulate what has become our mathematical and computing heritage. By bringing together the historical and technical aspects of computing, this book enables readers to gain a deep appreciation of the long evolutionary processes of the field developed over thousands of years. Suitable as a supplement in undergraduate courses, it provides a self-contained historical reference source for anyone interested in this important and evolving field.

From Zero to Infinity is a combination of number lore, number history, and sparkling descriptions of the simply stated but exceedingly difficult problems posed by the most ordinary numbers that first appeared in 1955 and has been kept in print continuously ever since. With the fifth edition this classic has been updated to report on advances in number theory over the last 50 years, including the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Deceptively simple in style and structure, it is a book to which the reader will return again and again, gaining greater understanding and satisfaction with each reading.

The Star and the Whole: Gian-Carlo Rota on Mathematics and Phenomenology, authored by Fabrizio Palombi, is the first book to study Rota's philosophical reflection. Rota (1932 1999) was a leading figure in contemporary mathematics and an outstanding philosopher, inspired by phenomenology, who made fundamental contributions to combinatorial analysis, and trained several generations of mathematicians in his long career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The first chapter of the book reconstructs Rota's cultural biography and examines his philosophical style, his criticisms of analytical philosophy, and his reflection on Heidegger's thought. The second chapter presents a general picture of Rota's re-elaboration of phenomenology examined in the light of the Husserlian notion of Fundierung. This chapter also illustrates how the star-shape becomes a powerful instrument for understanding the properties of Husserl's mereology and the critique of objectivism. The third chapter is a theoretical reflection on the nature of mathematical entities, and the fourth examines the complex relation of mathematical research with technological applicability and scientific progress. The foreword of the text is written by Robert Sokolowski.

The subject of mathematics is not something distant, strange, and abstract that you can only learn about and often dislike in school. It is in everyday situations, such as housekeeping, communications, traffic, and weather reports. Taking you on a trip into the world of mathematics, Do I Count? Stories from Mathematics describes in a clear and captivating way the people behind the numbers and the places where mathematics is made. Written by top scientist and engaging storyteller G nter M. Ziegler and translated by Thomas von Foerster, the book presents mathematics and mathematicians in a manner that you have not previously encountered. It guides you on a scenic tour through the field, pointing out which beds were useful in constructing which theorems and which notebooks list the prizes for solving particular problems. Forgoing esoteric areas, the text relates mathematics to celebrities, history, travel, politics, science and technology, weather, clever puzzles, and the future. Can bees count? Is 13 bad luck? Are there equations for everything? What's the real practical value of the Pythagorean Theorem? Are there Sudoku puzzles with fewer than 17 entries and just one solution? Where and how do mathematicians work? Who invented proofs and why do we need them? Why is there no Nobel Prize for mathematics? What kind of life did Paul Erdos lead? Find out the answers to these and other questions in this entertaining book of stories. You'll see that everyone counts, but no computation is needed.

Paradoxes are poems of science and philosophy that collectively allow us to address broad multidisciplinary issues within a microcosm. A true paradox is a source of creativity and a concise expression that delivers a profound idea and provokes a wild and endless imagination. The study of paradoxes leads to ultimate clarity and, at the same time, indisputably challenges your mind. Paradoxes in Scientific Inference analyzes paradoxes from many different perspectives: statistics, mathematics, philosophy, science, artificial intelligence, and more. The book elaborates on findings and reaches new and exciting conclusions. It challenges your knowledge, intuition, and conventional wisdom, compelling you to adjust your way of thinking. Ultimately, you will learn effective scientific inference through studying the paradoxes.

This book comprises five parts. The first three contain ten historical essays on important topics: number theory, calculus/analysis, and proof, respectively. Part four deals with several historically oriented courses, and Part five provides biographies of five mathematicians who played major roles in the historical events described in the first four parts of the work.

"Excursions in the History of Mathematics" was written with several goals in mind: to arouse mathematics teachers' interest in the history of their subject; to encourage mathematics teachers with at least some knowledge of the history of mathematics to offer courses with a strong historical component; and to provide an historical perspective on a number of basic topics taught in mathematics courses."

"Ah, I'm Pingree. We meet again. Splendid. Won't you sit down?" I looked around David's room. Short of the library stacks, I had never seen so many books piled into a single room. Where could I sit down? Every square inch of horizontal surface was covered. Books, papers, notes, manuscripts-all congregated in random and chaotic disorder. This small encounter and the snapshot of the protagonist on the cover of this book introduce the reader to David E. Pingree, the eminent classicist, Orientalist, historian of ancient science, and member of the Department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. This is a book of his stories, retold by Phil Davis, award-winning author and raconteur par excellence, who reconstructs them from letters and many conversations with his friend Pingree. The stories trace connections between ancient characters, historical and mythical, and recreate a world in which the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake leads to unexpected pleasures and associations. They capture a world best described by Saul Lieberman's quip about Gershom Scholem's great work on the Kabala: "Trash is trash; but the study of trash is scholarship," and David Pingree's imagined response, "Yes, but there's always something of value to be learned." The book is dedicated to preserving and promoting the specialized knowledge and thoughts of David Pingree, a truly remarkable person and to inspire readers to follow academic tradition and at the same time explore unusual connections.

Beginning with a short biography of Kurt Godel, "Godel's Theorem in Focus" provides the reader with a clear guide to the mechanics of Godel's proof in a format intelligible to the non-mathematician. The book moves on to explanations of the mechanics of Godel's proof and its significance for mathematical logic and the philosophy of mathematics. In the final section, S. G. Shanker presents a major new critique of Godel's theorem.

This book brings together the scattered literature associated with the seemingly unrelated regression equations (SURE) model used by econometricians and others. It focuses on the theoretical statistical results associated with the SURE model.

This book explores the limits of our knowledge. The author shows how uncertainty and indefiniteness not only define the borders confining our understanding, but how they feed into the process of discovery and help to push back these borders. Starting with physics the author collects examples from economics, neurophysiology, history, ecology and philosophy. The first part shows how information helps to reduce indefiniteness. Understanding rests on our ability to find the right context, in which we localize a problem as a point in a network of connections. New elements must be combined with the old parts of the existing complex knowledge system, in order to profit maximally from the information. An attempt is made to quantify the value of information by its ability to reduce indefiniteness. The second part explains how to handle indefiniteness with methods from fuzzy logic, decision theory, hermeneutics and semiotics. It is not sufficient that the new element appears in an experiment, one also has to find a theoretical reason for its existence. Indefiniteness becomes an engine of science, which gives rise to new ideas.

Das Buch behandelt Matrizengleichungen und -funktionen sowie die computergerechte Darstellung und Losung der Bewegungsgleichungen von Schwingungssystemen mit endlich vielen Freiheitsgraden und fuhrt in die Grundlagen der Naherungsmethoden von Rayleigh und Ritz ein. Das Eigenwertproblem wird, anders als sonst ublich, von einem allgemeinen Standpunkt aus betrachtet. Dadurch gewinnt die Darstellung an Verstandlichkeit und an Anwendungsbreite. Das Buch ist sowohl fur Studierende als auch fur Physiker und Ingenieure in der Praxis geschrieben.

This volume, which presents the cumulation of the authors' research in the field, deals with Lidstone, Hermite, Abel-Gontscharoff, Birkhoff, piecewise Hermite and Lidstone, spline and Lidstone-spline interpolating problems. Explicit representations of the interpolating polynomials and associated error functions are given, as well as explicit error inequalities in various norms. Numerical illustrations are provided of the importance and sharpness of the various results obtained. Also demonstrated are the significance of these results in the theory of ordinary differential equations such as maximum principles, boundary value problems, oscillation theory, disconjugacy and disfocality. The book should be useful for mathematicians, numerical analysts, computer scientists and engineers.

This book presents a philosophy of science, based on panenmentalism: an original modal metaphysics, which is realist about individual pure (non-actual) possibilities and rejects the notion of possible worlds. The book systematically constructs a new and novel way of understanding and explaining scientific progress, discoveries, and creativity. It demonstrates that a metaphysics of individual pure possibilities is indispensable for explaining and understanding mathematics and natural sciences. It examines the nature of individual pure possibilities, actualities, mind-dependent and mind-independent possibilities, as well as mathematical entities. It discusses in detail the singularity of each human being as a psychical possibility. It analyses striking scientific discoveries, and illustrates by means of examples of the usefulness and vitality of individual pure possibilities in the sciences.

This volume, first published in 2000, presents a classical approach to the foundations and development of the geometry of vector fields, describing vector fields in three-dimensional Euclidean space, triply-orthogonal systems and applications in mechanics. Topics covered include Pfaffian forms, systems in n-dimensional space, and foliations and their Godbillion-Vey invariant. There is much interest in the study of geometrical objects in n-dimensional Euclidean space and this volume provides a useful and comprehensive presentation.