Fractal Music, Hypercards and More--: Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American Magazine

by Martin Gardner

Book Overview

This is a collection of informative extracts from Gardners' "Scientific American" column. Each brain-teasing article has been updated to include new mists, new ideas, and new solutions. Highlights... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0716721899
• ISBN13: 9780716721895
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

profound masterpiece

Martin Garner is a genius, no doubt. However, he left no contact information for readers to report math errors. On page 156, Figure 68, I hold the proof that 10 circles can be packed to a 3.81 density. In a clever disclaimer, at least Martin admits on the same page, that proofs exist for 1-9, but not 10. Martin, if you want my solution for 10 circles, circlepacker.afm@OrdinaryAmerican.net is my contact info.

Another work from the master of explaining mathematics

This book is another pillar holding up the banner that proclaims the author to be `the most ubiquitous man in the most ubiquitous of fields." He seems to have no mathematical weaknesses, attacking and explaining every topic with charm, wit, grace and thoroughness. It there is such a thing as mathematical savoir-faire, Martin Gardner possesses it. In this work, Dr. Gardner explains fractal music, the Bell numbers and their uses, Egyptian fractions, packing circles and squares, mathematical chess problems, imaginary numbers, and tangent circles. He also discusses the career of Charles Saunders Pierce and the book Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter. Negative comments on minimal sculpture and psychic research methods are also included. Informative as well as entertaining, the works of this author should be part of every liberal education. Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.