The subject of mathematics is not something
distant, strange, and abstract that you can only learn
about—and often dislike—in school. It is in everyday
situations, such as housekeeping, communications,
traffic, and weather reports. Taking you on a trip into
the world of mathematics,
Do I Count? Stories
from Mathematics describes in a clear and
captivating way the people behind the numbers and the
places where mathematics is made.
Written by top
scientist and engaging storyteller Günter M. Ziegler and
translated by Thomas von Foerster, the book presents
mathematics and mathematicians in a manner that you have
not previously encountered. It guides you on a scenic
tour through the field, pointing out which beds were
useful in constructing which theorems and which
notebooks list the prizes for solving particular
problems. Forgoing esoteric areas, the text relates
mathematics to celebrities, history, travel, politics,
science and technology, weather, clever puzzles, and the
future.
- Can bees count?
- Is 13 bad luck?
- Are there equations for everything?
- What’s the real practical value of the
Pythagorean Theorem?
- Are there Sudoku puzzles with fewer than 17
entries and just one solution?
- Where and how do mathematicians work?
- Who invented proofs and why do we need
them?
- Why is there no Nobel Prize for
mathematics?
- What kind of life did Paul Erdős
lead?
Find out the answers to
these and other questions in this entertaining book of
stories. You’ll see that everyone counts, but no
computation is needed.
