
Tracking the Automatic ANT
And Other Mathematical Explorations
David Gale(Author)
Springer (Publisher)
Published on 29. May 1998
Book
Hardback
XI, 241 pages
978-0-387-98272-4 (ISBN)
Description
For those fascinated by the abstract universe of mathematics, David Gale's columns in The Mathematical Intelligencer have been a prime source of entertainment. Here Gale's columns are collected for the first time in book form. Encouraged by the magazine's editor, Sheldon Axler, to write on whatever pleased him, Gale ranged far and wide across the field of mathematics but frequently returned to favorite themes: triangles, tilings, the mysterious properties of sequences given by simple recursions, games and paradoxes, and the particular automaton that gives this collection its title, the "automatic ant". The level is suitable for those with some familiarity with mathematical ideas, but great sophistication is not needed.
More details
Edition
1998
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Popular/general
Illustrations
75 figures
Dimensions
Height: 0 mm
Width: 0 mm
Weight
560 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-387-98272-4 (9780387982724)
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4612-2192-0
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

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12/2012
Springer
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10/2011
Springer
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Content
1 Simple Sequences with Puzzling Properties.- 2 Probability Paradoxes.- 3 Historic Conjectures: More Sequence Mysteries.- 4 Privacy-Preserving Protocols.- 5 Surprising Shuffles.- 6 Hundreds of New Theorems in a Two-Thousand-Year-Old Subject: Where Will It End?.- 7 Pop Math and Protocols.- 8 Six Variations on the Variational Method.- 9 Tiling a Torus: Cutting a Cake.- 10 The Automatic Ant: Compassless Constructions.- 11 Games: Real, Complex, Imaginary.- 12 Coin Weighing: Square Squaring.- 13 The Return of the Ant and the Jeep.- 14 Go.- 15 More Paradoxes. Knowledge Games.- 16 Triangles and Computers.- 17 Packing Tripods.- 18 Further Travels with My Ant.- 19 The Shoelace Problem.- 20 Triangles and Proofs.- 21 Polyominoes.- 22 A Pattern Problem, A Probability Paradox, and A Pretty Proof.- 23 The Sun, the Moon, and Mathematics.- 24 In Praise of Numberlessness.- Appendix 1 A Curious Nim-Type Game.- Appendix 2 The Jeep Once More or Jeeper by the Dozen.- Appendix 3 Nineteen Problems in Elementary Geometry (by Armando Machado).- Appendix 4 The Truth and Nothing But the Truth.