When Least is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible.
PAUL J. NAHIN
Nahin, a professor of engineering, has a knack for delving into intriguing in·trigue
n.
1.
a. A secret or underhand scheme; a plot.
b. The practice of or involvement in such schemes.
2. A clandestine love affair.
v. mathematics, which he has done in his previous two books, An Imaginary Tale and Dueling The fighting of two persons, one against the other, at an appointed time and place, due to an earlier quarrel. If death results, the crime is murder. It differs from an affray in this, that the latter occurs on a sudden quarrel, while the former is always the result of design. Idiots and other Probability Puzzlers. In this volume, he considers the ways in which mathematicians Mathematicians by letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z See also
- Requested mathematicians articles
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- List of physicists
External links
approach extremes and how they go about addressing problems of things minimal and sometimes maximal. The problems apply to a host of strange yet compelling questions, such as: what is the best way to photograph a speeding bullet? Why does light move through glass in the least amount of time possible? and Why do soap bubbles soap bubble An adjective referring to a dilated, smooth-contoured cyst-like or ballooned, occasionally loculated space(s). See Physaliferous Bone radiology An expansile, often eccentric, vaguely trabeculated space with a thin, sclerotic, sharply defined margin, always revert to a shape that gives them the least surface area? Nahin draws from sources ranging from medieval writings to calculus calculus, branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. The calculus is characterized by the use of infinite processes, involving passage to a limit—the notion of tending toward, or approaching, an ultimate value. and the modern field of optimization to answer such questions. This book is for enthusiasts. To follow the examples and myriad paths of mathematic discovery described, readers will need an understanding of basic calculus and "a mind ready to receive new material." Princeton U Pr, 2004, 370 p., hardcover, $29.95.
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