Mathematics and the Imagination

You don't have to love math to enjoy a hand of cards a night at the casino or a puzzle. But your pleasure and prowess at games gambling and other numerically related pursuits can be heightened with this entertaining volume in which the authors offer a fascinating view of some of the lesser-known and more imaginative aspects of mathematics.<br>A brief and breezy explanation of the new language of mathematics precedes a smorgasbord of such thought-provoking subjects as the googolplex (the largest definite number anyone has yet bothered to conceive of); assorted geometries -- plane and fancy; famous puzzles that made mathematical history; and tantalizing paradoxes. Gamblers receive fair warning on the laws of chance; a look at rubber-sheet geometry twists circles into loops without sacrificing certain important properties; and an exploration of the mathematics of change and growth shows how calculus among its other uses helps trace the path of falling bombs.<br>Written with wit and clarity for the intelligent reader who has taken high school and perhaps college math this volume deftly progresses from simple arithmetic to calculus and non-Euclidean geometry. It lives up to its title in every way [and] might well have been merely terrifying whereas it proves to be both charming and exciting. -- <i>Saturday Review of Literature.</i>