Game Set and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums

Twelve essays take a playful approach to mathematics, investigating the topology of a blanket, the odds of beating a superior tennis player, and how to distinguish between fact and fallacy. Twelve essays take a playful approach to the subject, exploring how to play poker over the telephone without the possibility of cheating, how to distinguish plausible fallacies from unbelievable facts, and how to cope mathematically with contorted worms, drunken tennis players, and snakes that eat their own tails. Former columnist for Scientific American’s Mathematical Games section, Ian Stewart is a professor at the University of Warwick and the author of Another Fine Math You’ve Got Me Into… and a score of other books of mathematical recreations, popular science, and science fiction. In this collection of pun-studded fables, he once again exercises his immense talent for transforming complicated concepts of modern mathematics into stimulating, accessible fun. Stewart introduces the different kinds of infinity, explains how to build your own virus, explores the brighter ideas of Pascal and Fermat, and even offers a dozen different puzzles for the twelve days of Christmas.