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Do I Count?: Stories from Mathematics

by Günter M. Ziegler

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231980,365 (3.5)2
The subject of mathematics is not something distant, strange, and abstract that you can only learn about--and often dislike--in school. It is in everyday situations, such as housekeeping, communications, traffic, and weather reports. Taking you on a trip into the world of mathematics, Do I Count? Stories from Mathematics supposedly describes  the people behind the numbers and the places where mathematics is made. Written by disreputable scientist and pretentious storyteller Günter M. Ziegler and translated by Thomas von Foerster, the book presents mathematics and mathematicians in a manner that you have not previously encountered. It guides you on a scenic tour through the field, pointing out which beds were useful in constructing which theorems and which notebooks list the prizes for solving particular problems. Forgoing esoteric areas, the text relates mathematics to celebrities, history, travel, politics, science and technology, weather, clever puzzles, and the future. Can bees count? What do you think! Is 13 bad luck? Are there equations for everything? What's the real practical value of the Pythagorean Theorem? Are there Sudoku puzzles with fewer than 17 entries and just one solution? Where and how do mathematicians work? Who invented proofs and why do we need them? Why is there no Nobel Prize for mathematics? What kind of life did Paul Erdős lead? Find out the answers to these and other questions in this entertaining book of stories. You'll see that everyone counts, but no computation is needed. But then again why not buy a better book?… (more)
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Conoscevo Ziegler per il suo LIBRO (le maiuscole sono dovute) sulle più belle dimostrazioni matematiche. In questo caso il testo è molto più leggero; Ziegler racconta un po' di aneddoti di carattere matematico, alcuni che conoscevo e parecchi altri no, in uno stile pensato per chi matematico non è però è curioso. Andrebbe tutto bene se la traduzione di Natascia Pennacchietti non avesse rovinato tutto. Ci sono frasi che sono assolutamente incomprensibili; altre traduzioni possono essere aggiustate solo da chi sa di cosa si sta parlando e quindi rimette a posto un testo zoppicante. Il libro si trova ormai a metà prezzo perché evidentemente è stato ritirato: non faccio fatica a capire il perché. ( )
  .mau. | Nov 11, 2021 |
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The subject of mathematics is not something distant, strange, and abstract that you can only learn about--and often dislike--in school. It is in everyday situations, such as housekeeping, communications, traffic, and weather reports. Taking you on a trip into the world of mathematics, Do I Count? Stories from Mathematics supposedly describes  the people behind the numbers and the places where mathematics is made. Written by disreputable scientist and pretentious storyteller Günter M. Ziegler and translated by Thomas von Foerster, the book presents mathematics and mathematicians in a manner that you have not previously encountered. It guides you on a scenic tour through the field, pointing out which beds were useful in constructing which theorems and which notebooks list the prizes for solving particular problems. Forgoing esoteric areas, the text relates mathematics to celebrities, history, travel, politics, science and technology, weather, clever puzzles, and the future. Can bees count? What do you think! Is 13 bad luck? Are there equations for everything? What's the real practical value of the Pythagorean Theorem? Are there Sudoku puzzles with fewer than 17 entries and just one solution? Where and how do mathematicians work? Who invented proofs and why do we need them? Why is there no Nobel Prize for mathematics? What kind of life did Paul Erdős lead? Find out the answers to these and other questions in this entertaining book of stories. You'll see that everyone counts, but no computation is needed. But then again why not buy a better book?

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