Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz
Making Light of Weighty Ideas
17 October 2006
Description
“A profusely illustrated, bemusingly unorthodox introduction to math.”—Booklist
A book for the eternally curious, Coincidences fuses a professor’s understanding of the hidden mathematical skeleton of the universe with the sensibility of a stand-up comedian, making life’s big questions accessible and compelling. Each chapter opens with a surprising insight—not a mathematic formula, but a common observation. From there, the authors leapfrog over math and anecdote toward profound ideas about nature, art, and music. Coincidences is a book for lovers of puzzles and posers of outlandish questions, lapsed math aficionados and the formula-phobic alike.
Reviews
"I once had a math teacher who used to throw books at us. If only this had been one of them." — Ben Longstaff, New Scientist
"Informative, intelligent, and refreshingly irreverent. A roller-coaster ride along the frontiers of today’s mathematics, and anyone can climb on board. I enjoyed it immensely." — Ian Stewart, author of Flatterland