Slicing Pizzas, Racing Turtles, and Further Adventures in Applied Mathematics - Rilegato

Banks, Robert

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0691059470 ISBN 13: 9780691059471

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Dept of Art &, 1999

Riassunto

The author discloses the mathematics behind a host of whimsical and practical problems, including gauging the length of the seam on a baseball, predicting the results of melting polar ice caps, and digging a hole to China.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"[Banks displays] a playful imagination and love of the fantastic that one would not ordinarily associate with a mathematical engineer. . . . Banks's style is entertaining but never condescending."--The Christian Science Monitor

"Banks turns trivial questions into mind-expanding demonstrations of the magical powers of mathematics. Nor does he restrict himself to trivial questions: his shrewd analyses coax secrets out of such weighty topics as global population growth and the melting of polar ice caps. . . . Not a math textbook which teaches readers how to solve set types of problems, this collection of puzzles does something far more important: it teaches us how to delight in unexpected challenges to our numerical imagination."--Booklist

Contenuti:

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1 Broad Stripes and Bright Stars 3
Chapter 2 More Stars, Honeycombs, and Snowflakes 13
Chapter 3 Slicing Things Like Pizzas and Watermelons 23
Chapter 4 Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head and Other Goodies 34
Chapter 5 Raindrops and Other Goodies Revisited 44
Chapter 6 Which Major Rivers Flow Uphill? 49
Chapter 7 A Brief Look at pi, e, and Some Other Famous Numbers 57
Chapter 8 Another Look at Some Famous Numbers 69
Chapter 9 Great Number Sequences: Prime, Fibonacci, and Hailstone 78
Chapter 10 A Fast Way to Escape 97
Chapter 11 How to Get Anywhere in About Forty-Two Minutes 105
Chapter 12 How Fast Should You Run in the Rain? 114
Chapter 13 Great Turtle Races: Pursuit Curves 123
Chapter 14 More Great Turtle Races: Logarithmic Spirals 131
Chapter 15 How Many People Have Ever Lived? 138
Chapter 16 The Great Explosion of 2023 146
Chapter 17 How to Make Fairly Nice Valentines 153
Chapter 18 Somewhere Over the Rainbow 163
Chapter 19 Making Mathematical Mountains 177
Chapter 20 How to Make Mountains out of Molehills 184
Chapter 21 Moving Continents from Here to There 196
Chapter 22 Cartography: How to Flatten Spheres 204
Chapter 23 Growth and Spreading and Mathematical Analogies 219
Chapter 24 How Long Is the Seam on a Baseball? 232
Chapter 25 Baseball Seams, Pipe Connections, and World Travels 247
Chapter 26 Lengths, Areas, and Volumes of All Kinds of Shapes 256
References 279
Index 285

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Dept of Art &
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0691059470
• ISBN 13: 9780691059471
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 286