Mathematical Cranks

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 1992 - Mathematics - 372 pages
A delightful collection of articles about people who claim they have achieved the mathematically impossible (squaring the circle, duplicating the cube); people who think they have done something they have not (proving Fermat's Last Theorem); people who pray in matrices; people who find the American Revolution ruled by the number 57; people who have in common eccentric mathematical views, some mild (thinking we should count by 12s instead of 10s), some bizarre (thinking that second-order differential equations will solve all problems of economics, politics and philosophy). This is a truly unique book. It is written with wit and style and is a part of folk mathematics.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Applied Mathematics
9
Base for the Number System The Best
20
Bitterness Cranks
32
Calculus Celestial
38
Congressional Record Mathematics in the
46
Consultation Lack of of Cranks with Experts
53
Crank The Making of a
67
FourColor Theorem The
159
Gödels Theorem
167
Greed
179
Legislating Pi
192
Mail Crank
205
Money to be Made in Mathematics Lack of
222
Notation Nonstandard
235
Prayer Matrix
251

Deduction The Joy of
78
Duplication of the Cube
86
Ellipse Circumference of an
93
Equations Solving
102
Fermats Little Theorem
135
Puzzle A
269
Set Theory
322
Taxonomy Mathematical
337
Notes
353
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