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Mathematical Cranks
 
Mathematical Cranks
MAA Press: An Imprint of the American Mathematical Society
eBook ISBN:  978-1-4704-5170-7
Product Code:  SPEC/4.E
List Price: $30.00
MAA Member Price: $22.50
AMS Member Price: $22.50
Mathematical Cranks
Click above image for expanded view
Mathematical Cranks
MAA Press: An Imprint of the American Mathematical Society
eBook ISBN:  978-1-4704-5170-7
Product Code:  SPEC/4.E
List Price: $30.00
MAA Member Price: $22.50
AMS Member Price: $22.50
  • Book Details
     
     
    Spectrum
    Volume: 41992; 372 pp

    A delightful collection of articles about people who claim they have achieved the mathematically impossible (squaring the circle, duplicating the cube); people who think they have done something they have not (proving Fermat's Last Theorem); people who pray in matrices; people who find the American Revolution ruled by the number 57; people who have in common eccentric mathematical views, some mild (thinking we should count by 12s instead of 10s), some bizarre (thinking that second-order differential equations will solve all problems of economics, politics and philosophy). This is a truly unique book. It is written with wit and style and is a part of folk mathematics.

  • Table of Contents
     
     
    • Chapters
    • Alphabet, Application of Pyramid Height to the
    • American Revolution, The Role of 57 in the
    • Applied Mathematics
    • Base for the Number System, The Best
    • Bitterness, Cranks’
    • Calculus, Celestial
    • Cantor’s Diagonal Process
    • Congressional Record, Mathematics in the
    • Constant Society, The
    • Consultation, Lack of, of Cranks with Experts
    • Crank, Case Study of a
    • Crank, The Making of a
    • Deduction, The Joy of
    • Duplication of the Cube
    • Ellipse, Circumference of an
    • Encouraging Cranks, The Folly of
    • Equations, Solving
    • Fermat’s Last Theorem
    • Fermat’s Little Theorem
    • Fifth Postulate, Euclid’s
    • Four-Color Theorem, The
    • Gödel’s Theorem
    • Goldbach Conjecture, The
    • Greed
    • Incomprehensibility of Crank’s Works
    • Infinity, Difficulties with
    • Insanity
    • Legislating Pi
    • Linear Programming, Conspiracy Involving
    • Magic Squares
    • Mail, Crank
    • Megalomania
    • Money to be Made in Mathematics, Lack of
    • Nines, Casting Out
    • Nonagons, Regular
    • Notation, Nonstandard
    • Number Theory, The Lure of
    • Perfect Numbers
    • Phi
    • Prayer, Matrix
    • Primes, The Secret of the
    • Primes, Twin, Existence of Infinitely Many
    • Prolificity, Crank’s
    • Puzzle, A
    • Pythagoreans, Neo-
    • Pythagoreans, The Mystery of the
    • Quadrature of the Circle
    • Set Theory
    • Signs, The Rule of
    • Solution to a Puzzle
    • Sphere, Philosophy of the
    • Statistics, Parameter Estimation in
    • Taxonomy, Mathematical
    • Time, Wasted
    • Topology, Applied
    • Trisection of the Angle
    • Van der Pol’s Equation
    • Notes
    • Index
  • Reviews
     
     
    • Dudley Underwood extracts insights from an astonishing variety of examples.

      Robert Matthews, New Scientist
    • A delightful collection of true accounts of individuals who claim to have achieved the mathematically impossible ...It is hard to put down and provides topics for an unending series of interesting discussions. The organization and breadth of the book are impressive, supported by a helpful index and a list of resources that encourage further explorations. A classic.

      Choice
  • Requests
     
     
    Review Copy – for publishers of book reviews
    Accessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
Volume: 41992; 372 pp

A delightful collection of articles about people who claim they have achieved the mathematically impossible (squaring the circle, duplicating the cube); people who think they have done something they have not (proving Fermat's Last Theorem); people who pray in matrices; people who find the American Revolution ruled by the number 57; people who have in common eccentric mathematical views, some mild (thinking we should count by 12s instead of 10s), some bizarre (thinking that second-order differential equations will solve all problems of economics, politics and philosophy). This is a truly unique book. It is written with wit and style and is a part of folk mathematics.

  • Chapters
  • Alphabet, Application of Pyramid Height to the
  • American Revolution, The Role of 57 in the
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Base for the Number System, The Best
  • Bitterness, Cranks’
  • Calculus, Celestial
  • Cantor’s Diagonal Process
  • Congressional Record, Mathematics in the
  • Constant Society, The
  • Consultation, Lack of, of Cranks with Experts
  • Crank, Case Study of a
  • Crank, The Making of a
  • Deduction, The Joy of
  • Duplication of the Cube
  • Ellipse, Circumference of an
  • Encouraging Cranks, The Folly of
  • Equations, Solving
  • Fermat’s Last Theorem
  • Fermat’s Little Theorem
  • Fifth Postulate, Euclid’s
  • Four-Color Theorem, The
  • Gödel’s Theorem
  • Goldbach Conjecture, The
  • Greed
  • Incomprehensibility of Crank’s Works
  • Infinity, Difficulties with
  • Insanity
  • Legislating Pi
  • Linear Programming, Conspiracy Involving
  • Magic Squares
  • Mail, Crank
  • Megalomania
  • Money to be Made in Mathematics, Lack of
  • Nines, Casting Out
  • Nonagons, Regular
  • Notation, Nonstandard
  • Number Theory, The Lure of
  • Perfect Numbers
  • Phi
  • Prayer, Matrix
  • Primes, The Secret of the
  • Primes, Twin, Existence of Infinitely Many
  • Prolificity, Crank’s
  • Puzzle, A
  • Pythagoreans, Neo-
  • Pythagoreans, The Mystery of the
  • Quadrature of the Circle
  • Set Theory
  • Signs, The Rule of
  • Solution to a Puzzle
  • Sphere, Philosophy of the
  • Statistics, Parameter Estimation in
  • Taxonomy, Mathematical
  • Time, Wasted
  • Topology, Applied
  • Trisection of the Angle
  • Van der Pol’s Equation
  • Notes
  • Index
  • Dudley Underwood extracts insights from an astonishing variety of examples.

    Robert Matthews, New Scientist
  • A delightful collection of true accounts of individuals who claim to have achieved the mathematically impossible ...It is hard to put down and provides topics for an unending series of interesting discussions. The organization and breadth of the book are impressive, supported by a helpful index and a list of resources that encourage further explorations. A classic.

    Choice
Review Copy – for publishers of book reviews
Accessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
Please select which format for which you are requesting permissions.