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Do you know of a mathematical formula that
can transform circles into squares? Can you turn a beach
ball inside out without letting out the air? Do you want
to know how a rubber band may help a traveling salesman?
What's really inside the fourth dimension?
Ivars Peterson, the best-selling author
of The Mathematical Tourist, takes you on another
fantastic voyage into Mathland where the habitat is purely
mysterious and the inhabitants invariably fascinating. Explore
uncharted islands as the author introduces you to strange
vibrations in the shadows of chaos, new twists in knot physics,
and the straight side of circles. The author speaks in a
way that's accessible and enjoyable to experienced travelers
and first-time tourists alike.
Peterson, the renowned science journalist,
makes the arcane intelligible while he translates mathematics
into prose. From astonishing applications of number theory
to new developments in fractal geometry and the power of
computer graphics, Islands of Truth is a lucid and
interesting investigation into the dynamic world of modern
mathematics.
Ivars Peterson has been a science journalist
with Science News, a weekly magazine based in Washington,
D.C., for more than eight years, covering topics and new
research developments in mathematics and physics. Peterson
is the best-selling author of The Mathematical Tourist
(W.H. Freeman and Company, 1988).
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