A leading physicist and author of How to Dunk a Doughnut critically analyzes the modern science of game theory, its implications for understanding the evolution of cooperation in nature, and its applications in everyday human life, from the polite confines of an English dinner party to baseball strategies, quantum mechanics, and global diplomacy. Original.

Like Douglas HofstadterÂ's Gödel, Escher, Bach, and David BerlinskiÂ's A Tour of the Calculus, Euclid in the Rainforest combines the literary with the mathematical to explore logic—the one indispensable tool in manÂ's quest to understand the world. Underpinning both math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the muddled relationship between math and the real world. Ultimately, Mazur argues, logical reasoning is not purely robotic. At its most basic level, it is a creative process guided by our intuitions and beliefs about the world. BACKCOVER: “This charming book radiates love of mathematics and of life . . . A treasure of human experience and intellectual excitement.Â

Featured topics include permutations and factorials, probabilities and odds, frequency interpretation, mathematical expectation, decision making, postulates of probability, rule of elimination, much more. Exercises with some solutions. Summary. 1973 edition.

Chronicles the life of the Hungarian mathematician who relentlessly traveled the globe in search of intriguing problems

The author of Fermat's Last Theorem journeys into the mysterious world of Georg Cantor, a Russian-born German mathematician, who developed set theory, the concept of infinite numbers, and the "continuum hypothesis," but who was condemned by his peers and who spent many years in an asylum. Reprint.

A "biography" of the most vexing and troublesome number in human history reveals how the Babylonians invented it, why the Greeks were afraid of it and the Hindus worshipped it, the role it played in hunting down heretics in the Middle Ages, and its placein the Y2K issue

Presents a survey of advances in mathematics over the past twenty-five years, including such topics as prime numbers, factories, sets, and number systems

Take the first step toward a whole new world of statistical prowess with this delightful, easy-to-follow guide.

Relates how mathematical genius John Forbes Nash, jr., suffered a breakdown at age thirty-one and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but experienced a remission of his illness thirty years later

Documents the calculation, numerical value, and use of the ratio from 2000 B.C. to the modern computer age, detailing social conditions in eras when progress was made