Cover image for The magic numbers of the professor
Title:
The magic numbers of the professor
Personal Author:
Series:
Spectrum
Publication Information:
Washington, WA : The Mathematical Association of America, 2007
Physical Description:
xi, 168 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9780883855577
Added Author:

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30000010192653 QA99 O84 2007 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

A fascinating collection of numerical curiosities and wonders. The Professor in Owen O Shea s book is the imaginary American Richard Stein. As Owen O Shea and the Professor travel through Ireland, O Shea notes the Professor s collection of amazing magic numbers in fascinating detail. His mathematical curiosities are wide ranging, concerning the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania to coincidences about Apollo 11 to the first moon walk to new numerical curiosities. The new curiosities, among many others, center on Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy, the USA and Ireland, the two World Wars, the King James Version of the Bible, and James Joyce.

The Magic Numbers of the Professor reveals astonishing details about the year 1776; the year of American Independence. It contains discussions on prime numbers, gives some wonderful number patterns, and reveals many other eye-opening properties of numbers. It asks, for instance, if you know in how many different ways a US dollar can be changed. The Professor gives the answer to this and other currency questions. The number of the Beast 666, is discussed as well, as are many new equations involving that famous number all appearing here for the first time. And for those fascinated by games and gambling, a number of curious proposition bets involving dice, darts, and playing cards, and various mathematical puzzles are scattered throughout this singularly entertaining book.


Table of Contents

Foreword by Martin Gardner
Introduction
1 Digit curiosities
2 The 9/11 atrocities
3 The Professor speaks on the U. S. and Ireland
4 Curiosities in armed conflicts
5 Number and word palindromes
6 The U. S.-Iraq war
7 The number of the Beast
8 Curios of the Lusitania and other curious matters
9 Wordplay and other curiosities
10 New coincidences on Lincoln and Kennedy
11 Dart and card curiosities
12 The Professor gives some number patterns
13 The King James Bible and some currency curiosities
14 The Professor at the university
Index
About the authors