Things to make and do in the fourth dimension
Subtitle: a mathematician's journey through narcissistic numbers, optimal dating algorithms, at least two kinds of infinity, and more
By: Matt Parker
Edition: First American edition.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 453
ISBN-13: 9780374275655
Subjects: Mathematics; Mathematical recreations; Humor; Popular works
Description: A mathematician and comedian offers games, puzzles, and hands-on activities to help those with a fear of math understand and enjoy the logical tools and abstract concepts of the subject normally only accessible at college-level study.

"Math is boring, says the mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. Part of the problem may be the way the subject is taught, but it's also true that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, find math difficult and counterintuitive. This counterintuitiveness is actually part of the point, argues Parker: the extraordinary thing about math is that it allows us to access logic and ideas beyond what our brains can instinctively do--through its logical tools we are able to reach beyond our innate abilities and grasp more and more abstract concepts. In the absorbing and exhilarating Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as fourteen-year-olds. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school (numbers, geometry, and algebra), he reveals how it is possible to climb all the way up to the topology and to four-dimensional shapes, and from there to infinity--and slightly beyond. Both playful and sophisticated, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension is filled with captivating games and puzzles, a buffet of optional hands-on activities that entices us to take pleasure in math that is normally only available to those studying at a university level. Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension invites us to re-learn much of what we missed in school and, this time, to be utterly enthralled by it."--
Notes: Originally published: London : Particular Books, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: The zeroth chapter; title: Can you digit?; title: Making shapes; title: Be there and be square; title: Shape shifting; title: Shapes : now in 3D; title: Pack it up, pack it in; title: Prime time; title: Knot a problem; title: Just for graphs; title: The fourth dimension; title: The algorithm method; title: How to build a computer; title: Number mash-ups; title: Ridiculous shapes; title: Higher dimensions; title: Good data die hard; title: Ridiculous numbers; title: To infinity and beyond; title: The subsequent chapter; title: The answers at the back of the book.