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Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums

Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums Paperback / softback - 2011

by Julian Havil

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Description

Paperback / softback. New. Whenever Forty-second Street in New York is temporarily closed, traffic doesn't gridlock but flows more smoothly - why is that? Or consider that cities that build new roads can experience dramatic increases in traffic congestion - how is this possible? This title includes some of these counterintuitive mathematical occurrences.
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Details

  • Title Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums
  • Author Julian Havil
  • Binding Paperback / softback
  • Edition First Paperback
  • Condition New
  • Pages 264
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
  • Date 2011-03
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # A9780691150024
  • ISBN 9780691150024 / 0691150028
  • Weight 0.73 lbs (0.33 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.19 x 6.09 x 0.64 in (23.34 x 15.47 x 1.63 cm)
  • Dewey Decimal Code 510

From the rear cover

"Julian Havil's Impossible? is a superb discussion of problems easily understood by a high schooler, yet with solutions so counterintuitive as to seem impossible. Topics include the notorious Monty Hall three-door problem, the Gamow-Stern elevator paradoxes, the Kruskal count card trick, Cantor's 'paradise' of alephs, and the mind-blowing Banach-Tarski paradox, all analyzed in depth by a master who does not hold back equations that provide elegant proofs. There are surprises on almost every page."--Martin Gardner

"This book is a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read. Havil offers an engaging collection of counterintuitive results and seemingly impossible problems. Some of the material is truly astonishing, and the author conveys his sense of surprise very effectively. Each problem ultimately yields to careful and well-presented analysis. The history of many of the results is discussed, and further references are provided."--Nick Hobson, creator of the award-winning Web site Nick's Mathematical Puzzles

"I thought it impossible for Julian Havil to exceed Nonplussed!, his previous collection of perplexing math puzzlers. And yet he has done just that with the sequel Impossible?, an accomplishment that has left me nonplussed."--Paul J. Nahin, author of An Imaginary Tale

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About the author

Julian Havil is a retired former master at Winchester College, England, where he taught mathematics for thirty-three years. In addition to Nonplussed!, he is the author of Gamma: Exploring Euler's Constant (both Princeton).