In "Nonplussed ," popular-math writer Julian Havil delighted
readers with a mind-boggling array of implausible yet true
mathematical paradoxes. Now Havil is back with "Impossible?,"
another marvelous medley of the utterly confusing, profound, and
unbelievable--and all of it mathematically irrefutable.
Whenever Forty-second Street in New York is temporarily closed,
traffic doesn't gridlock but flows more smoothly--why is that? Or
consider that cities that build new roads can experience dramatic
increases in traffic congestion--how is this possible? What does
the game show "Let's Make A Deal" reveal about the unexpected
hazards of decision-making? What can the game of cricket teach us
about the surprising behavior of the law of averages? These are
some of the counterintuitive mathematical occurrences that readers
encounter in "Impossible?"
Havil ventures further than ever into territory where intuition
can lead one astray. He gathers entertaining problems from
probability and statistics along with an eclectic variety of
conundrums and puzzlers from other areas of mathematics, including
classics of abstract math like the Banach-Tarski paradox. These
problems range in difficulty from easy to highly challenging, yet
they can be tackled by anyone with a background in calculus. And
the fascinating history and personalities associated with many of
the problems are included with their mathematical proofs.
"Impossible?" will delight anyone who wants to have their reason
thoroughly confounded in the most astonishing and unpredictable
ways.
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