A Budget of Paradoxes

A Budget of Paradoxes originally published in 1915 is mathematician Augustus De Morgans most accessible and entertaining work. Well-known for his wit De Morgan takes aim at those people he calls paradoxers which in modern terms would most closely resemble crackpots. Paradoxers however are not crazy necessarily-rather they hold views wildly outside the accepted sphere. If you believed the world was round when everyone else knew that it was flat you would be a paradoxer. In this book De Morgan reviews a number of books from his own library written by such crackpots who claim to have solved a great many of the puzzles of mathematics and science including squaring a circle creating perpetual motion and overcoming gravity. Each is thoroughly put in his place in ways both entertaining and informative to readers. Skeptics students of science and anyone who likes pondering a puzzle will find this book a delightful read. British mathematician AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN (1806-1871) invented the term mathematical induction. Among his many published works is Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849).