Introduction |
|
|
|
3 | (24) |
|
Easy words for hard ideas |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Radicals, hyperradicals, and ultraradicals (nonpolitical) |
|
|
|
New numbers for the nursery |
|
|
|
|
|
Miracle of the rising book |
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 | (38) |
|
Counting---the language of number |
|
|
|
Counting, matching, and ``Going to Jerusalem'' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The infinite and its progeny |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Measuring the measuring rod |
|
|
|
The whole is no greater than some of its parts |
|
|
|
The first transfinite---Aleph0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cardinality of the continuum |
|
|
|
Extravagances of a mathematical madman |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The house that Cantor built |
|
|
|
|
65 | (47) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Squaring the circle and its cousins |
|
|
|
Mathematical impossibility |
|
|
|
Silk purse, sow's ear, ruler and compass |
|
|
|
|
|
Algebraic equations and transcendental numbers |
|
|
|
Galois and Greek epidemics |
|
|
|
Cube duplicators and angle trisectors |
|
|
|
|
|
Infancy: Archimedes, the Bible, the Egyptians |
|
|
|
Adolescence: Vieta, Van Ceulen |
|
|
|
Maturity: Wallis, Newton, Leibniz |
|
|
|
Old Age: Dase, Richter, Shanks |
|
|
|
|
|
Boon to insurance companies |
|
|
|
|
|
Logarithms or tricks of the trade |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Biography of e; or e, the banker's boon |
|
|
|
Pituitary gland of mathematics: the exponential function |
|
|
|
|
|
Humpty Dumpty, Doctor of Semantics |
|
|
|
|
|
The -1, or ``Where am I?'' |
|
|
|
Biography of i, the self-made amphibian |
|
|
|
Omar Khayyam, Cardan, Bombelli, and Gauss |
|
|
|
|
|
Program music of mathematics |
|
|
|
Breakfast in bed; or, How to become a great mathematician |
|
|
|
|
|
Geometric representation of i |
|
|
|
|
|
A famous formula, faith, and humility |
|
|
|
Assorted Geometries---Plane and Fancy |
|
|
112 | (44) |
|
The talking fish and St. Augustine |
|
|
|
|
|
High priests and numbo jumbo |
|
|
|
Pure and applied mathematics |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ghosts, table-tipping, and the land of the dead |
|
|
|
Foruth-dimension flounders |
|
|
|
|
|
Fourth dimension---a new gusher |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Four-dimensional geometry defined |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three-dimensional cats and two-dimensional kings |
|
|
|
Gallant Gulliver and the gloves |
|
|
|
Beguiling voices and strange footprints |
|
|
|
|
|
Space credos and millinery |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The prince and the Boethians |
|
|
|
|
|
The mathematicians unite---nothing to lose but their chains |
|
|
|
Lobachevsky breaks a link |
|
|
|
|
|
Checks and double checks in mathematics |
|
|
|
The tractix and the pseudosphere |
|
|
|
|
|
The skeptic persists---and is stepped on |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lobachevskian Eiffel Towers and Riemannian Holland Tunnels |
|
|
|
Pastimes of Past and Present Times |
|
|
156 | (37) |
|
Puzzle acorns and mathematical oaks |
|
|
|
Charlemagne and crossword puzzles |
|
|
|
Mark Twain and the ``farmer's daughter'' |
|
|
|
|
|
Carolyn Flaubert and the cabin boy |
|
|
|
A wolf, a goat, and a head of cabbage |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
High finance; or, The international beer wolf |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Buddha, God, and the binary scale |
|
|
|
The march of culture; or, Russia, the home of the binary system |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The ritual of Benares: or, Charley horse in the Orient |
|
|
|
Nim, Sissa Ben Dahir, and Josephus |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Take a number from 1 to 10 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paradox Lost and Paradox Regained |
|
|
193 | (30) |
|
Great paradoxes and distant relatives |
|
|
|
|
|
Paradoxes strange but true |
|
|
|
Wheels that move faster on top than on bottom |
|
|
|
|
|
The curse of transportation; or, How locomotives can't make up their minds |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Point sets---the Arabian Nights of mathematics |
|
|
|
Hausdorff spins a tall tale |
|
|
|
Messrs. Banach and Tarski rub the magic lamp |
|
|
|
Baron Munchhausen is stymied by a pea |
|
|
|
|
|
Trouble from a bubble; or, Dividing by zero |
|
|
|
The infinite---troublemaker par excellence |
|
|
|
|
|
Logical paradoxes---the folk tales of mathematics |
|
|
|
Deluding dialectics of the poacher and the prince; of the introspective barber; of the number 111777; of this book and Confucius: of the Hon. Bertrand Russell |
|
|
|
Scylla and Charybdis; or, What shall poor mathematics do? |
|
|
|
|
223 | (42) |
|
The clue of the billiard cue |
|
|
|
A little chalk, a lot of talk |
|
|
|
Watson gets his leg pulled by probable inference |
|
|
|
Finds it all absurdly simple |
|
|
|
Passionate oysters, waltzing ducks, and the syllogism |
|
|
|
The twilight of probability |
|
|
|
Interesting behavior of a modes coin |
|
|
|
Biological necessity and a pair of dice |
|
|
|
|
|
A poll of views: a meteorologist, a bootlegger, a bridge player |
|
|
|
The subjective view---based on insufficient reason, contains an element of truth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What happens will probably happen |
|
|
|
Experimental eurythmics; or, Pitching pennies |
|
|
|
|
|
The adventure of the dancing men |
|
|
|
Scheherezade and John Wilkes Booth---a challenge to statistics |
|
|
|
|
|
Charles Peirce predicts the weather |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mr. Jevons omits an acknowledgment |
|
|
|
The study of craps---the very guide of life |
|
|
|
Dice, pennies, permutations, and combinations |
|
|
|
|
|
D'Alembert drops the ball |
|
|
|
Count Buffon plays with a needle |
|
|
|
|
|
A black ball and a white ball |
|
|
|
|
|
The calculus of probability re-examined |
|
|
|
Found to rest on hypothesis |
|
|
|
Laplace needs no hypothesis |
|
|
|
|
|
The Marquis de Condorcet has high hopes |
|
|
|
M. le Marquis omits a factor and loses his head |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The syllogism scraps a standby |
|
|
|
|
|
Ring out the old logic, ring in the new |
|
|
|
|
265 | (34) |
|
Seven bridges over a stein of beer |
|
|
|
|
|
Is warmed by news from home |
|
|
|
|
|
Dissolves the dilemma of Sunday strollers |
|
|
|
Babies' cribs and Pythagoreans |
|
|
|
Talismen and queer figures |
|
|
|
Position is everything in topology |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Competition for the caliph's cup; or, Sifting out the suitors by science |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Odd facts concerning Times Square and a balloonist's head |
|
|
|
Eccentric deportment of several distinguished gentlemen at Princeton |
|
|
|
Their passion for pretzels |
|
|
|
Their delving in doughnuts |
|
|
|
Enforced modesty of readers and authors |
|
|
|
|
|
Lachrymose recital around a Paris pissoir |
|
|
|
``Who staggered how many times around the walls of what?'' |
|
|
|
|
|
Gastric surgery---from doughnut to sausage in a single cut |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just as black as it is painted |
|
|
|
Forments industrial discontent |
|
|
|
|
|
Bane of painter and paintpot alike |
|
|
|
|
|
Mathematical cotillion; or, How on earth do I get rid of my partner? |
|
|
|
Topology---the pinnacle of perversity; or, Removing your vest without your coat |
|
|
|
Down to earth---map coloring |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The simplest universal law |
|
|
|
|
|
The search for invariants |
|
|
|
|
299 | (58) |
|
|
|
Meaning of change and rate of change |
|
|
|
|
|
``Flying Arrow'' local---stops at all points |
|
|
|
|
|
The arithmetic men dig pits |
|
|
|
Lamentable analogue of the boomerang |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Story of the great rectangle |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shrinking and swelling; or, ``Will the circle go the limit?'' |
|
|
|
Brief dictionary of mathematics and physics |
|
|
|
Military idyll; or, The speed of the falling bomb |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Higher derivatives and radius of curvature |
|
|
|
Laudable scholarship of automobile engineers |
|
|
|
The third derivative as a shock absorber |
|
|
|
The derivative finds its mate |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Measuring lengths; or, The yawning regress |
|
|
|
|
|
Measuring areas under curves |
|
|
|
Method of rectangular strips |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One the inverse of the other |
|
|
|
The outline of history and the descent of man: or, y=ex |
|
|
|
Sickly curves and orchidaceous ones |
|
|
|
|
|
Infinite perimeters and postage stamps |
|
|
|
|
|
Super-colossal pathological specimen---the curve that fills space |
|
|
|
The unbelieveable crisscross |
|
|
Epilogue. Mathematics and the Imagination |
|
357 | |