The New York Times book of mathematics : more than 100 years of writing by the numbers

The New York Times book of mathematics More than 100 years of writing by the numbers

Book - 2013

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Subjects
Mathematics.
Published
New York, NY : Sterling [2013]
Language
English
Other Authors
Gina Bari Kolata, 1948- (editor of compilation)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
xvi, 480 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781402793226
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. What Is Mathematics?
  • Useful Invention or Absolute Truth: What Is Math?
  • But Aren't Truth and Beauty Supposed to be Enough?
  • Mathematicians Meet Computerized Ideas
  • Mathematicians Finally Log On
  • With Major Math Proof, Brute Computers Show Flash of Reasoning Power
  • Computers Still Can't Do Beautiful Mathematics
  • 100 Quadrillion Calculations Later, Eureka!
  • Theorist Applies Computer Power to Uncertainty in Statistics
  • Chapter 2. Statistics, Coincidences and Surprising Facts
  • 1-in-a-Trillion Coincidence, You Say? Not Really, Experts Find
  • Sometimes Heavier Objects Go to the Top: Here's Why
  • Behind Monty Hall's Doors: Puzzle, Debate and Answer?
  • What If They Closed 42d Street and Nobody Noticed?
  • Down for the Count; Why Some Numbers Are Only Very Good Guesses
  • Could It Be? Weather Has Nothing to Do with Your Arthritis Pain?
  • Electronics to Aid Weather Figuring
  • Insurance as a Study; Something of the Men Who Figure Business by Algebra
  • Leontief's Contribution
  • Many Small Events May Add Up to One Mass Extinction
  • Metric Mania
  • In Shuffling Cards, 7 Is a Winning Number
  • Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb?
  • In Modeling Risk, the Human Factor Was Left Out
  • Playing the Odds
  • Monday Puzzle: Solution to Birthday Problem
  • Just What Are Your Odds in Genetic Roulette? Go Figure
  • The 2000 Election: The Science of Counting
  • Prospectus; Can a Computer Program Figure Out the Market? A Former Analyst and a Mathematician Are Betting That Theirs Can
  • New Tools for the I.R.S. to Sniff Out Tax Cheats
  • Chapter 3. Famous Problems, Solved and As Yet Unsolved
  • New Mathematics Links Two Worlds
  • An Elusive Proof and Its Elusive Prover
  • Ask Science: Poincare's Conjecture
  • Grigori Perelman's Beautiful Mind
  • A Math Problem Solver Declines a $1 Million Prize
  • "Four-Color Problem" Attacked
  • Four-Color Proof
  • Goldbach's Conjecture; This One May Be Provable, but We May Never Know
  • Mathematics Expert May Soon Resolve A 350-Year Problem
  • Fermat's Theorem Solved? Not This Time
  • Fermat's Last Theorem Still Has 0 Solutions
  • At Last, Shout of "Eureka!" in Age-Old Math Mystery
  • Fermat's Theorem
  • Flaw Is Found in Math Proof, but Repairs Are Under Way
  • A Year Later Fermat's Puzzle Is Still Not Quite Q.E.D.
  • How a Gap in the Fermat Proof Was Bridged
  • Two Key Mathematics Questions Answered after Quarter Century
  • Mathematical Theory of Poker Is Applied to Business Problems
  • Soap Bubbles Get a New Role in Old Mathematics Problem
  • Math Advance Penetrates Secrets of Knots
  • Packing Tetrahedrons, and Closing in on a Perfect Fit
  • Finding Order in the Apparent Chaos of Currents
  • In Bubbles and Metal, the Art of Shape-Shifting
  • The Scientific Promise of Perfect Symmetry
  • 143-Year-Old Problem Still Has Mathematicians Guessing
  • What Is the Most Important Problem in Math Today?
  • Solution to Old Puzzle: How Short a Shortcut?
  • Chapter 4. Chaos, Catastrophe and Randomness
  • Chaos Is Defined by New Calculus
  • Experts Debate the Prediction of Disasters
  • Solving the Mathematical Riddle of Chaos
  • The Man Who Reshaped Geometry
  • Snowflake's Riddle Yields to Probing of Science
  • Tales of Chaos: Tumbling Moons and Unstable Asteroids
  • Fluid Math Made Simple-Sort Of
  • When Chaos Rules the Market
  • New Appreciation of the Complexity in a Flock of Birds
  • Indestructible Wave May Hold Key to Superconductors
  • The Quest for True Randomness Finally Appears Successful
  • Coin-Tossing Computers Found to Show Subtle Bias
  • Science Squints at a Future Fogged by Chaotic Uncertainty
  • Probing Disease Clusters: Easier to Spot Than Prove
  • The Odds of That
  • Fractal Vision
  • Chapter 5. Cryptography and the Emergence of Truly Unbreakable Codes
  • Harassment Alleged over Code Research
  • Researchers to Permit Pre-Publication Review by U.S.
  • Tighter Security Rules for Advances in Cryptology
  • A New Approach to Protecting Secrets Is Discovered
  • Brief U.S. Suppression of Proof Stirs Anger
  • A Most Ferocious Math Problem Tamed
  • Biggest Division a Giant Leap in Math
  • Scientists Devise Math Tool to Break a Protective Code
  • Tied Up in Knots, Cryptographers Test Their Limits
  • A Public Battle over Secret Codes
  • U.S. Code Agency Is Jostling for Civilian Turf
  • Researchers Demonstrate Computer Code Can Be Broken
  • Nick Patterson; A Cold War Cryptologist Takes a Crack at Deciphering DNA's Deep Secrets
  • Adding Math to List of Security Threats
  • Prizes Aside, the P-NP Puzzler Has Consequences
  • Chapter 6. Computers Enter the World of Mathematics
  • "Thinking Machine" Does Higher Mathematics; Solves Equations That Take Humans Months
  • New Giant "Brain" Does Wizard Work
  • "Brain" Speeded Up for War Problems
  • The Electronic Digital Computer: How It Started, How It Works and What It Does
  • New Shortcut Found for Long Math Proofs
  • New Technique Stores Images More Efficiently
  • Giant Computer Virtually Conquers Space and Time
  • Rear Adm. Grace M. Hopper Dies; Innovator in Computers Was 85
  • Frances E. Holberton, 84, Early Computer Programmer
  • Squeezing Data like an Accordion
  • A Digital Brain Makes Connections
  • A Soviet Discovery Rocks World of Mathematics
  • The Health Care Debate: Finding What Works
  • Step 1: Post Elusive Proof. Step 2: Watch Fireworks
  • Chapter 7. Mathematicians and Their World
  • Paul Erdos, 83, a Wayfarer in Math's Vanguard, Is Dead
  • Journeys to the Distant Fields of Prime
  • Highest Honor in Mathematics Is Refused
  • Scientist at Work: John H- Conway; At Home in the Elusive World of Mathematics
  • Claude Shannon, B. 1916-Bit Player
  • An Isolated Genius Is Given His Due
  • Scientist at Work: Andrew Wiles; Math Whiz Who Battled 350-Year-Old Problem
  • Scientist at Work: Leonard Adleman; Hitting the High Spots of Computer Theory
  • Dr. Kurt Gödel, 71, Mathematician
  • Genius or Gibberish? The Strange World of the Math Crank
  • Contributors' Biographies
  • Photography and Illustration Credits
  • Ackowledgments
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Science writer and reporter Kolata (Rethinking Thin) has compiled article reprints in a demonstration of the multiple personalities of mathematics. From party conversation fodder to the esoteric, topics and authors appear and reappear all in the articulate, clever voice that can be expected from the New York Times. Articles both brief and extended are divided into broad categories of general mathematics; statistics and coincidences; famous problems throughout mathematical history; chaos and randomness; cryptography; computers in mathematics; and mathematicians themselves. Readers might recognize contributors such as James Gleick, Malcolm Browne, David Cay Johnston, Paul Hoffman, and John Tierney, among many others. Readers will find answers to such varied questions as: How can chaos theory be applied to the stock market? Does the evidence support weather as a cause of arthritis pain? How solid is the conjecture of environmental toxins as a cause of disease clusters? Many fascinating problems are explained in language that the layperson will understand, without relying on equations; those with more than a passing interest in mathematics will find many topics of interest worthy of further reading. This compilation of real-world applications will interest those with an inclination toward mathematics or problem-solving. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review by Library Journal Review

Collecting articles of a mathematical bent from three centuries of pieces found in America's most celebrated daily newspaper, Kolata (senior writer, New York Times; Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It) displays her expertise as an editor in a book that is both a history of modern mathematics-as an academic, social, and political phenomenon-and a Who's Who of great science/math writers. Kolata herself features heavily in the book's pages, as does James Gleick (The Information). The book is divided into thematic sections and is only occasionally chronological. Among topics covered are the National Security Agency's (NSA's) threats to mathematicians writing papers with code-breaking applications; the celebrated story of Andrew Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem; Grigori Perelman's confirmation of the Poincare conjecture and his subsequent, Bobby Fischer-like, disappearance. These articles, both feature pieces and news reports, were all written at the time of what they cover, thus offering an immediacy lacking in some popular histories. Some of the pieces included here are important and some are curiosities, but all are absorbing. VERDICT Recommended for casual and serious math enthusiasts.-J.J.S. Boyce, Manitoba Metis Federation, Canada (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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