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AMS Member Price: | $22.50 |
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eBook: ISBN: | 978-1-4704-5848-5 |
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AMS Member Price: | $48.75 $37.50 |
Softcover ISBN: | 978-0-88385-515-7 |
Product Code: | SPEC/9 |
List Price: | $35.00 |
MAA Member Price: | $26.25 |
AMS Member Price: | $26.25 |
eBook ISBN: | 978-1-4704-5848-5 |
Product Code: | SPEC/9.E |
List Price: | $30.00 |
MAA Member Price: | $22.50 |
AMS Member Price: | $22.50 |
Softcover ISBN: | 978-0-88385-515-7 |
eBook ISBN: | 978-1-4704-5848-5 |
Product Code: | SPEC/9.B |
List Price: | $65.00 $50.00 |
MAA Member Price: | $48.75 $37.50 |
AMS Member Price: | $48.75 $37.50 |
-
Book DetailsSpectrumVolume: 9; 1994; 330 pp
Do you expect to find articles about mathematics in your daily newspaper? If you are a reader of The Guardian, you do, or at least, you did during the second half of the 1980s. This volume collects many of the columns Keith Devlin wrote for The Guardian. Read them and assign them to your students to read. This is a book for delving in and is accessible to anyone with an interest in things mathematical. Devlin takes mathematical discoveries and explains them to the interested lay reader. The topics range from computer discoveries dealing with large prime numbers to much deeper results, such as Fermat's Last Theorem. You will find articles on the traveling salesman problem, on cryptology, and on procedures for working out claims for traveling expenses. Although the individual pieces are short and easily read, many contain references to mathematical articles and can form the basis for student research papers.
-
Table of Contents
-
Chapters
-
1. The biggest prime number in the world, May 12, 1983
-
2. How the prime number has come up, August 18, 1983
-
3. The mathematical solution to the unfiddled expenses, September 29, 1983
-
4. Great Minds, October 13, 1983
-
5. The kilderkin approach through a silicon gate, October 20, 1983
-
6. Pi in the sky, or how the digits keep multiplying, November 3, 1983
-
7. An equation completed, November 17, 1983
-
8. Winning glory by numbers, November 24, 1983
-
9. How to put the world back in its right place, December 1, 1983
-
10. How you could take on Euler, December 8, 1983
-
11. The good guys sometimes win, January 5, 1984
-
12. Patterns and palindromes, January 19, 1984
-
13. Challenging the theory of safety in numbers, January 26, 1984
-
14. The Japanese thrive on a diet of pi and chips, February 2, 1984
-
15. Another slice of pi, February 16, 1984
-
16. Prime beef, March 1, 1984
-
17. 73 year old brain beats micros, March 15, 1984
-
18. Shades of opinion, March 29, 1984
-
19. The measure of all things, April 12, 1984
-
20. Hands off, April 26, 1984
-
21. Why runners go round the bend, May 10, 1984
-
22. Further adventures in Flatland, May 31, 1984
-
23. How maths adds up to the best computer game of all, June 7, 1984
-
24. How Archimedes number came up, June 21, 1984
-
25. Biblical fingers get stuck into pi, June 21, 1984
-
26. The hidden holocaust, July 5, 1984
-
27. All in the mind, July 19, 1984
-
28. Find a four-letter word and the square root of computer, August 5, 1984
-
29. Question time, August 16, 1984
-
30. First find your algorithm, August 30, 1984
-
31. Circle games, September 13, 1984
-
32. How the Babylonians almost saw the point, September 27, 1984
-
33. The best way to get from $A$ to $B$ is by way of $C$ abd $D$, October 6, 1984
-
34. On making arithmetic pointless, October 11, 1984
-
35. Add egg to face and take away fame, October 11, 1984
-
36. Dynastic struggles, November 8, 1984
-
37. A problem? Hang on while the computer tosses a coin, November 22, 1984
-
38. Rabbits do it by numbers, December 6, 1984
-
39. Add mission, December 13, 1984
-
40. Chimney sweep for Santa, December 20, 1984
-
41. Has the last great math mystery been unravelled? January 3, 1985
-
42. The short-cut solution, January 17, 1985
-
43. The software jungle, January 31, 1985
-
44. Measured smile, February 14, 1985
-
45. Food for thought, February 28, 1985
-
46. Playing the negadecimal game, March 14, 1985
-
47. The taxi cab that caused a conundrum, March 28, 1985
-
48. Square deals, April 11, 1985
-
49. Square dance, April 25, 1985
-
50. The world would end before you could answer the questions, May 9, 1985
-
51. Printouts and the negative computer, May 23, 1985
-
52. How long is a coastline? June 20, 1985
-
53. Bringing back beauty from the frontiers of chaos, July 4, 1985
-
54. A fractional approach to the pursuit of an ideal, July 18, 1985
-
55. The pure delight of the mathematical pay-off, August 8, 1985
-
56. Big guns go west, August 23, 1985
-
57. How the beauty of mathematics brought a sense of proportion to origami, September 5, 1985
-
58. How to take an electronic line for a walk, September 19, 1985
-
59. Factor factors, October 3, 1985
-
60. The perfect picture, November 14, 1985
-
61. Quite a performance, December 5, 1985
-
62. In pursuit of prime suspects, January 9, 1985
-
63. A monk whose mathematical genius was almost infallible, January 16, 1986
-
64. As easy as pi, February 27, 1986
-
65. A prime target, March 27, 1986
-
66. Maths can be good for you, April 24, 1986
-
67. Selling under false colors, May 8, 1986
-
68. A Farey story, May 22, 1986
-
69. Blooming numbers, June 5, 1986
-
70. Power games, June 19, 1986
-
71. A playful approach to the bomb, July 3, 1986
-
72. Can you crack the code of the spilled nail varnish? July 24, 1986
-
73. Wallpapering by numbers, July 31, 1986
-
74. Circling round the square, August 14, 1986
-
75. Back to front, August 28, 1986
-
76. Seven-up, September 11, 1986
-
77. Pi in the sky, September 25, 1986
-
78. Friendly numbers, October 9, 1986
-
79. New life for good old numbers, November 6, 1986
-
80. Valiant strides at the games, November 20, 1986
-
81. Living at the margin, December 18, 1986
-
82. The art of the solvable, January 8, 1987
-
83. Lies, damned lies, and logic, January 22, 1987
-
84. Rabbit pi, February 5, 1987
-
85. Prime revelations, February 19, 1987
-
86. One is the number, March 19, 1987
-
87. Infinite variety, April 16, 1987
-
88. Sum election balance, May 14, 1987
-
89. The thought machine, June 4, 1987
-
90. On and on into infinity, June 18, 1987
-
91. Fermat’s number is up, July 2, 1987
-
92. A clever little number, July 16, 1987
-
93. Putting your foot in it, August 27, 1987
-
94. Down the tubes, September 24, 1987
-
95. Making the right connections, October 8, 1987
-
96. Silicon Valley scholars, October 22, 1987
-
97. Prime chops, November 5, 1987
-
98. Damned lies, November 19, 1987
-
99. Computer dating challenge, December 3, 1987
-
100. Back to key one, December 17, 1987
-
101. Game, set, and match program, January 7, 1988
-
102. Doing it the brain’s way, January 21, 1988
-
103. Mud on whose face? February 4, 1988
-
104. The silver coin tease, February 18, 1988
-
105. Prime the record books, March 10, 1988
-
106. Silver coins and gold in the box, March 24, 1988
-
107. The security in big numbers, April 21, 1988
-
108. The deadly traps in simple problems, May 5, 1988
-
109. Hunt goes on for maximum factors, May 19, 1988
-
110. Beauty figures, June 2, 1988
-
111. Theries that all fall down, June 16, 1988
-
112. Can a smart computer ski? July 14 and 28, 1988
-
113. Why odd cannot be perfect, August 11, 1988
-
114. Probability rod for your back, August 25, 1988
-
115. Great lengths and hidden powers, October 6, 1988
-
116. The anguish in the broken curtain rod, October 20, 1988
-
117. Better by degrees, November 17, 1988
-
118. The lofty goals of a new mathematics program, December 1, 1988
-
119. A problem that cuts across conventional boundaries, December 15, 1988
-
120. Greek insights in a prime challenge, January 5, 1989
-
121. The programs of unshakable absolute certainty, January 19, 1989
-
122. Dantzig dimension, February 2, 1989
-
123. The private truths, March 23, 1989
-
124. A series that hits the buffers, April 13, 1989
-
125. The vertical confusions, April 27, 1989
-
126. Introducing the figure that always adds up, May 18, 1989
-
127. Get Knotted, June 1, 1989
-
128. Tarski and hunch squares the circle, June 29, 1989
-
129. Today’s moment of history, July 6, 1989
-
130. Playing it by numbers, October 12, 1989
-
131. Pi-eyed over eternal sum, November 16, 1989
-
132. Their infinite wisdom, November 30, 1989
-
133. Taming infinity, December 14, 1989
-
134. Call to order, January 25, 1990
-
135. The irony of information, March 1, 1990
-
136. Information overload, March 15, 1990
-
137. Out for the count, April 12, 1990
-
138. Odds on a perfectly odd number, April 26, 1990
-
139. World’s most wanted number, August 16, 1990
-
140. A yen for teamwork, December 12, 1990
-
141. Math gang makes Fermat prime suspect, May 22, 1990
-
142. Record primes, Added July 1993
-
143. Fermat’s Last Theorem, a theorem at last? Added April 1994
-
-
Reviews
-
Mathematics and mathematicians can be the objects of public interest, if there are individuals capable of explaining those items in a form that the intelligent reader can follow. Keith Devlin is such a person and the editors of the British paper, The Manchester Guardian, were intelligent enough to understand that. This book should be an element of every public library.
Journal of Recreational Mathematics
-
-
RequestsReview Copy – for publishers of book reviewsAccessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
- Book Details
- Table of Contents
- Reviews
- Requests
Do you expect to find articles about mathematics in your daily newspaper? If you are a reader of The Guardian, you do, or at least, you did during the second half of the 1980s. This volume collects many of the columns Keith Devlin wrote for The Guardian. Read them and assign them to your students to read. This is a book for delving in and is accessible to anyone with an interest in things mathematical. Devlin takes mathematical discoveries and explains them to the interested lay reader. The topics range from computer discoveries dealing with large prime numbers to much deeper results, such as Fermat's Last Theorem. You will find articles on the traveling salesman problem, on cryptology, and on procedures for working out claims for traveling expenses. Although the individual pieces are short and easily read, many contain references to mathematical articles and can form the basis for student research papers.
-
Chapters
-
1. The biggest prime number in the world, May 12, 1983
-
2. How the prime number has come up, August 18, 1983
-
3. The mathematical solution to the unfiddled expenses, September 29, 1983
-
4. Great Minds, October 13, 1983
-
5. The kilderkin approach through a silicon gate, October 20, 1983
-
6. Pi in the sky, or how the digits keep multiplying, November 3, 1983
-
7. An equation completed, November 17, 1983
-
8. Winning glory by numbers, November 24, 1983
-
9. How to put the world back in its right place, December 1, 1983
-
10. How you could take on Euler, December 8, 1983
-
11. The good guys sometimes win, January 5, 1984
-
12. Patterns and palindromes, January 19, 1984
-
13. Challenging the theory of safety in numbers, January 26, 1984
-
14. The Japanese thrive on a diet of pi and chips, February 2, 1984
-
15. Another slice of pi, February 16, 1984
-
16. Prime beef, March 1, 1984
-
17. 73 year old brain beats micros, March 15, 1984
-
18. Shades of opinion, March 29, 1984
-
19. The measure of all things, April 12, 1984
-
20. Hands off, April 26, 1984
-
21. Why runners go round the bend, May 10, 1984
-
22. Further adventures in Flatland, May 31, 1984
-
23. How maths adds up to the best computer game of all, June 7, 1984
-
24. How Archimedes number came up, June 21, 1984
-
25. Biblical fingers get stuck into pi, June 21, 1984
-
26. The hidden holocaust, July 5, 1984
-
27. All in the mind, July 19, 1984
-
28. Find a four-letter word and the square root of computer, August 5, 1984
-
29. Question time, August 16, 1984
-
30. First find your algorithm, August 30, 1984
-
31. Circle games, September 13, 1984
-
32. How the Babylonians almost saw the point, September 27, 1984
-
33. The best way to get from $A$ to $B$ is by way of $C$ abd $D$, October 6, 1984
-
34. On making arithmetic pointless, October 11, 1984
-
35. Add egg to face and take away fame, October 11, 1984
-
36. Dynastic struggles, November 8, 1984
-
37. A problem? Hang on while the computer tosses a coin, November 22, 1984
-
38. Rabbits do it by numbers, December 6, 1984
-
39. Add mission, December 13, 1984
-
40. Chimney sweep for Santa, December 20, 1984
-
41. Has the last great math mystery been unravelled? January 3, 1985
-
42. The short-cut solution, January 17, 1985
-
43. The software jungle, January 31, 1985
-
44. Measured smile, February 14, 1985
-
45. Food for thought, February 28, 1985
-
46. Playing the negadecimal game, March 14, 1985
-
47. The taxi cab that caused a conundrum, March 28, 1985
-
48. Square deals, April 11, 1985
-
49. Square dance, April 25, 1985
-
50. The world would end before you could answer the questions, May 9, 1985
-
51. Printouts and the negative computer, May 23, 1985
-
52. How long is a coastline? June 20, 1985
-
53. Bringing back beauty from the frontiers of chaos, July 4, 1985
-
54. A fractional approach to the pursuit of an ideal, July 18, 1985
-
55. The pure delight of the mathematical pay-off, August 8, 1985
-
56. Big guns go west, August 23, 1985
-
57. How the beauty of mathematics brought a sense of proportion to origami, September 5, 1985
-
58. How to take an electronic line for a walk, September 19, 1985
-
59. Factor factors, October 3, 1985
-
60. The perfect picture, November 14, 1985
-
61. Quite a performance, December 5, 1985
-
62. In pursuit of prime suspects, January 9, 1985
-
63. A monk whose mathematical genius was almost infallible, January 16, 1986
-
64. As easy as pi, February 27, 1986
-
65. A prime target, March 27, 1986
-
66. Maths can be good for you, April 24, 1986
-
67. Selling under false colors, May 8, 1986
-
68. A Farey story, May 22, 1986
-
69. Blooming numbers, June 5, 1986
-
70. Power games, June 19, 1986
-
71. A playful approach to the bomb, July 3, 1986
-
72. Can you crack the code of the spilled nail varnish? July 24, 1986
-
73. Wallpapering by numbers, July 31, 1986
-
74. Circling round the square, August 14, 1986
-
75. Back to front, August 28, 1986
-
76. Seven-up, September 11, 1986
-
77. Pi in the sky, September 25, 1986
-
78. Friendly numbers, October 9, 1986
-
79. New life for good old numbers, November 6, 1986
-
80. Valiant strides at the games, November 20, 1986
-
81. Living at the margin, December 18, 1986
-
82. The art of the solvable, January 8, 1987
-
83. Lies, damned lies, and logic, January 22, 1987
-
84. Rabbit pi, February 5, 1987
-
85. Prime revelations, February 19, 1987
-
86. One is the number, March 19, 1987
-
87. Infinite variety, April 16, 1987
-
88. Sum election balance, May 14, 1987
-
89. The thought machine, June 4, 1987
-
90. On and on into infinity, June 18, 1987
-
91. Fermat’s number is up, July 2, 1987
-
92. A clever little number, July 16, 1987
-
93. Putting your foot in it, August 27, 1987
-
94. Down the tubes, September 24, 1987
-
95. Making the right connections, October 8, 1987
-
96. Silicon Valley scholars, October 22, 1987
-
97. Prime chops, November 5, 1987
-
98. Damned lies, November 19, 1987
-
99. Computer dating challenge, December 3, 1987
-
100. Back to key one, December 17, 1987
-
101. Game, set, and match program, January 7, 1988
-
102. Doing it the brain’s way, January 21, 1988
-
103. Mud on whose face? February 4, 1988
-
104. The silver coin tease, February 18, 1988
-
105. Prime the record books, March 10, 1988
-
106. Silver coins and gold in the box, March 24, 1988
-
107. The security in big numbers, April 21, 1988
-
108. The deadly traps in simple problems, May 5, 1988
-
109. Hunt goes on for maximum factors, May 19, 1988
-
110. Beauty figures, June 2, 1988
-
111. Theries that all fall down, June 16, 1988
-
112. Can a smart computer ski? July 14 and 28, 1988
-
113. Why odd cannot be perfect, August 11, 1988
-
114. Probability rod for your back, August 25, 1988
-
115. Great lengths and hidden powers, October 6, 1988
-
116. The anguish in the broken curtain rod, October 20, 1988
-
117. Better by degrees, November 17, 1988
-
118. The lofty goals of a new mathematics program, December 1, 1988
-
119. A problem that cuts across conventional boundaries, December 15, 1988
-
120. Greek insights in a prime challenge, January 5, 1989
-
121. The programs of unshakable absolute certainty, January 19, 1989
-
122. Dantzig dimension, February 2, 1989
-
123. The private truths, March 23, 1989
-
124. A series that hits the buffers, April 13, 1989
-
125. The vertical confusions, April 27, 1989
-
126. Introducing the figure that always adds up, May 18, 1989
-
127. Get Knotted, June 1, 1989
-
128. Tarski and hunch squares the circle, June 29, 1989
-
129. Today’s moment of history, July 6, 1989
-
130. Playing it by numbers, October 12, 1989
-
131. Pi-eyed over eternal sum, November 16, 1989
-
132. Their infinite wisdom, November 30, 1989
-
133. Taming infinity, December 14, 1989
-
134. Call to order, January 25, 1990
-
135. The irony of information, March 1, 1990
-
136. Information overload, March 15, 1990
-
137. Out for the count, April 12, 1990
-
138. Odds on a perfectly odd number, April 26, 1990
-
139. World’s most wanted number, August 16, 1990
-
140. A yen for teamwork, December 12, 1990
-
141. Math gang makes Fermat prime suspect, May 22, 1990
-
142. Record primes, Added July 1993
-
143. Fermat’s Last Theorem, a theorem at last? Added April 1994
-
Mathematics and mathematicians can be the objects of public interest, if there are individuals capable of explaining those items in a form that the intelligent reader can follow. Keith Devlin is such a person and the editors of the British paper, The Manchester Guardian, were intelligent enough to understand that. This book should be an element of every public library.
Journal of Recreational Mathematics