A new partnership of biologists and mathematicians is picking apart the hidden complexity of animals and plants to throw fresh light on the behaviour of entire organisms, how they interact and how changes in biological diversity affect the planet's ecological balance. The author explores these and w[...]
Knowing that the most exciting math is not taught in school, Professor Ian Stewart has spent years filling his cabinet with intriguing mathematical games, puzzles, stories, and factoids intended for the adventurous mind. This book reveals the most exhilarating oddities from Professor Stewarts legen[...]
At its heart, mathematics is about numbers, our fundamental tools for understanding the world. In "Professor Stewart s Incredible Numbers," Ian Stewart offers a delightful introduction to the numbers that surround us, from the common (Pi and 2) to the uncommon but no less consequential (1.059463 and[...]
In "Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries," acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart presents an enticing collection of mathematical curios and conundrums. With a new puzzle on each page, this compendium of brainteasers will both teach and delight.
Guided by stalwart detective Hemloc[...]
Features mathematical oddities such as games, puzzles, facts, numbers and mathematical nibbles.
Presents a collection of games, puzzles, paradoxes, brainteasers, and riddles. This title helps you find out: how to organise chaos; how matter balances anti-matter; how to turn a sphere inside out (without creasing it); why you can't comb a hairy ball; and, how to calculate pi by observing the star[...]
The transition from school mathematics to university mathematics is seldom straightforward. Students are faced with a disconnect between the algorithmic and informal attitude to mathematics at school, versus a new emphasis on proof, based on logic, and a more abstract development of general concepts[...]
"Stewart writes with such compelling clarity that general readers can share in the intellectual daring of his perspective."?Booklist An invitation to a hidden world In Life?s Other Secret, mathematician and award?winning science writer Ian Stewart reveals the way mathematics describes the origin, st[...]
Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by inventing the space elevator. But now it's all gon[...]
A brilliant new Discworld story from Terry Pratchett.
The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time around dealing with THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS, Terry Pratchett's brilliant new Discworld story "Judgement Day" is annotated with very big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) b[...]
When a wizardly experiment goes adrift, the wizards of Unseen University find themselves with a pocket universe on their hands: Roundworld, where neither magic nor common sense seems to stand a chance against logic. The Universe, of course, is our own. And Roundworld is Earth. As the wizards watch t[...]
The sequel to the bestselling Science of Discworld.
The acclaimed Science of Discworld centred around an original Pratchett story about the Wizards of Discworld. In it they accidentally witnessed the creation and evolution of our universe, a plot which was interleaved with a Cohen & Stewart non-[...]
The latest instalment in the "Sunday Times"-bestselling Science of Discworld series.
Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal. Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the creatures who lived the[...]
Since the dramatic discovery of the mathematical concept of chaos in 1989, the controversy of its contents has settled down. This revised edition of "Does God Play Dice?" takes a fresh look at its achievements and potential. With a new preface and three completely new chapters, it includes the lates[...]
Do we live in a simple or a complex universe? Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart explore the ability of complicated rules to generate simple behaviour in nature through 'the collapse of chaos'. 'The most startling, thought-provoking book I've read all year. I was pleased to learn that most of the things I t[...]
A retitled and revised edition of Ian Stewart's The Problem of Mathematics, this is the perfect guide to today's mathematics. Read about the latest discoveries, including Andrew Wile's amazing proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, the newest advances in knot theory, the Four Colour Theorem, Chaos Theory, [...]
Welcome to Ian Stewart's strange and magical world of mathematics! In Math Hysteria, Professor Stewart presents us with a wealth of magical puzzles, each one spun around an amazing tale: Counting the Cattle of the Sun; The Great Drain Robbery; and Preposterous Piratical Predicaments; to name but a [...]
Welcome back to Ian Stewart's magical world of mathematics! This is a strange world of never-ending chess games, empires on the moon, furious fireflies, and, of course, disputes over how best to cut a cake. Each quirky tale presents a fascinating mathematical puzzle - challenging, fun, and also intr[...]
From the mathematics of mazes, to cones with a twist, and the amazing sphericon - and how to make one - Ian Stewart is back with more mathematical stories and puzzles that are as quirky as they are fascinating, and each from the cutting edge of the world of mathematics. We find out about the mathema[...]
In the 1800s mathematicians introduced a formal theory of symmetry: group theory. Now a branch of abstract algebra, this subject first arose in the theory of equations. Symmetry is an immensely important concept in mathematics and throughout the sciences, and its applications range across the entire[...]
Biologists have long dismissed mathematics as being unable to meaningfully contribute to our understanding of living beings. Within the past ten years, however, mathematicians have proven that they hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of our worldand ourselves. In The Mathematics of Life, Ian S[...]
It is one of the wonders of mathematics that, for every problem mathematicians solve, another awaits to perplex and galvanize them. Some of these problems are new, while others have puzzled and bewitched thinkers across the ages. Such challenges offer a tantalizing glimpse of the field's unlimited p[...]