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Join acclaimed science writer Ivars Peterson on an adventurous
trek through an exotic world of weird dice, fractal drums, firefly rhythms and
chaotic amusement park rides, as he explores the wilds of randomness. A tricky,
intriguing, even elusive concept, randomness affects our lives in an astonishing
range of ways -- from the fun of games we play and the noise that spoils the music
we hear, to the ways viruses grow and atoms combine. Hidden rules and secret patterns
lurk within apparently random events and chance encounters. How
likely is it that a fair coin will land heads up ten times in a row? How often
might you meet a stranger at a party who shares your birthday? Are there really
ways to win at roulette or beat a slot machine? How does the gait of a horse differ
from that of a cockroach? Peterson uncovers the answers to a rich array of such
tantalizing questions, revealing the surprising, ambiguous boundaries between
order and chaos. An eye-opening discovery awaits at
every turn, from the simple secret behind winning a game of Chutes and Ladders,
to why any group of six people must include at least three acquaintances or three
strangers, and why you can scratch a compact disk and still get flawless sound.
We learn how a game of darts can provide a remarkably good estimate of the value
of pi, how pacemaker cells in the heart begin to beat in synchrony, and how carefully
designed chaos translates into the thrilling ride of a Tilt-a-Whirl. Along
the way we also meet a host of characters, both charming and eccentric, who either
made striking discoveries about randomness or were profoundly affected by it.
There's the case of Williard Longcor, a man gripped with a passion for throwing
dice, who meticulously records the outcomes of millions of tosses and helps correct
the theory of the distribution of runs. And there's the tragic case of the brilliant
novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who became addicted to the random spin of the roulette
wheel. The "wandering mathematician" Paul Erdos drops in with his famous
greeting "my brain is open," and the visionary architect Buckminster
Fuller remarks on the similarities between his geodesic domes and the structure
of viruses. In Peterson's words, "Mathematics
encompasses the joy of solving puzzles, the exhilaration of subduing stubborn
problems, the thrill of discerning patterns and making sense of apparent nonsense,
and the immense satisfaction of nailing down an eternal truth." The Jungles
of Randomness offers a delightful journey into the exciting world of mathematical
discovery and imparts a rare vision of the fundamental playfulness of mathematics
in our lives. Ivars Peterson is one of today's
most popular math authors. He is the mathematics and physics editor of Science
News, and the author of four previous books, including The Mathematical
Tourist, as well as Islands of Truth, Newton's Clock, and Fatal
Defect. He received the award for "exceptional skill in communicating
mathematics to the general audience" in 1991 from the Joint Policy Board
for Mathematics. |
