Ian Stewart is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Warwick and the author of the bestseller Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities. His recent books include Do Dice Play God?, Significant Figures, Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers, Seventeen Equations that Changed the World, Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries and Calculating the Cosmos. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society.
This is a book of mathematical oddities: games, puzzles, facts, numbers and delightful mathematical nibbles for the curious and adventurous mind. School maths is not the interesting part. The real fun is elsewhere. Like a magpie, Ian Stewart has collected the most enlightening, entertaining and vexing 'curiosities' of maths over the years...Now, the private collection is displayed in his cabinet. There are some hidden gems of logic, geometry and probability. Scattered among these are keys to unlocking the mysteries of Fermat's last theorem, the Four Colour Theorem, the Poincare Conjecture, chaos theory, fractals, complexity and the P/NP problem for which a million dollar prize is on offer. There are beguiling discoveries about familiar names and concepts like Pythagoras, prime numbers, and permutations as well as anecdotes about great mathematicians. Pull out the drawers of the Professor's cabinet and marvel at the puzzles, secrets and enigmas you'll find in them...
