D. G. Wells

Mathematics, as teachers are fond of repeating, is not a spectator sport. It's exciting, it's fascinating, it's mysterious, but you can't just put it up in vivid colours on a TV screen and expect viewers to grasp it while sitting back in an easy chair. At least, the reader of a mathematics book must be prepared to think about what the author is saying. At best the reader gets stuck in and becomes involved with the author's ideas. Professional mathematicians do this all the time. When they show more read a book, or a paper by a colleague, they reach for a pen and paper and they start to work out the ideas for themselves, because they know that "To do is to understand".
This book gives you, the reader, the chance to do just that. Each chapter is interrupted by a number of boxes which pose questions to you, related to the theme of the chapter. Some are easy, some are more difficult, but they will all make you think. Tackle them, and you too will be a Mathematician. Of course, if you don't feel like exercising your grey cells, you can always look up the solutions, but I hope that you will feel drawn to the problems, and experience an irresistible temptation to attempt to solve them! Good luck, and bon voyage on your mathematical journey! show less

What are Kaprekar numbers? What is the connection between the Golden Ratio and a sunflower? How many grains of sand would fill the universe? lucky numbers, perfect numbers, the Syracuse algorithm....these and many other questions and facts are covered in this fascinating book. Its the sort of book you pick up to look up a single item and two hours later you are still deep in its pages, moving from one number to another, it is mesmerising.

A nice book for those who like to play with numbers. I have an older version someplace in my library, but I checked this one out from the library. Starting with Number 1, and going up to Graham's number (3↑↑↑3 etc.), intersting and "curious" ideas about each number are presented. The smallest number about which nothing is discussed is 58. This is a fun read and one can go back and forth looking at Fibonacci and Mersenne numbers, squares and primes, and lots of other stuff.

A wonderful book. I will add to this review, make it a real review instead of a recommendation, once I finish it.

For now, let me only say: if you encounter the Kindle edition of this, run away screaming. Random font changes (certain math symbols are 3x the size of the surrounding text, others not), tables formatted as long thin single columns, text that is suddenly centered for absolutely no reason -- it's all here. I despair of getting anything with mathematical content for the Kindle. show more Everything I've tried has been lousy. show less