Robin Wilson (1) (1943–)

Interesting, and well-presented. It's more about math and less about maps than I'd thought, but those are both interests of mine so it worked. The history of a math problem - not just "can every map be colored with no more than four colors so that no two countries that share a border have the same color" - but can that be _proved_. Chapter after chapter, he'd mention that it had been proved that the theory was true for any map with no more than...20, 50, 150 countries. But is it true for _all_ maps? The question kept getting more abstract - from maps, to geometric shapes, to graphs of connected points. There were a lot of proofs that were eventually shown not to be proofs - holes in their logic. The final answer (the question was first posed in the mid-1800s; the answer came in 1976) required a computer to work the proof, and was greeted with a good deal of skepticism thereby. Was it really a proof if a human hadn't done all the steps? I found that part particularly interesting. It's a question I'd heard of vaguely, and I'm glad I read this; I now understand the question, at least, though the details of the math began to escape me near the end. Definitely worth reading.… (more)

Most people know Charles Dodgson as his pen name Lewis Carroll and his work "Alice in Wonderland"; however, he was also a brilliant mathematician. This book documents this life from childhood through his years at Oxford University. In addition to biographical information, Robin Wilson includes many of Dodgson's puzzles and math problems for the reader to solve. The book turns from a biography to a book of logic puzzles. After reading this book, I had to watch Alice in Wonderland again as it gave me an entirely new perspective on the story. The illustrations are a must in this book if the reader is not familiar with the proofs explained in the book. The author also uses many primary sources from Dodgson's writings. Having assigned students mathematicians on which to complete biographies, I have used this book as a reference. Given it can be a difficult read for junior high students, I usually pick out which sections would given them the most relevant information. There are also many puzzles and problems that can be used as weekly challenge problems for students.… (more)