TY  - BOOK
AU  - Havil,Julian
TI  - Nonplussed!: mathematical proof of implausible ideas 
SN  - 9780691120560 (acidfree paper)
U1  - 510 23
PY  - 2007///
CY  - Princeton
PB  - Princeton University Press
KW  - Mathematics
KW  - Miscellanea
KW  - Mathematical recreations
KW  - Paradox
N1  - Includes index; Chapter 1. Three tennis paradoxes --
Chapter 2. The uphill roller --
Chapter 3. The birthday paradox --
Chapter 4. The spin of a table --
Chapter 5. Derangements --
Chapter 6. Conway's chequerboard army --
Chapter 7. The toss of a needle --
Chapter 8. Torricelli's trumpet --
Chapter 9. Nontransitive effects --
Chapter 10. A pursuit problem --
Chapter 11. Parrondo's games --
Chapter 12. Hyperdimensions --
Chapter 13. Friday the 13th --
Chapter 14. Fractran --
 The motifs --
 Appendix A : The inclusion-exclusion principle --
 Appendix B : The binomial inversion formula --
 Appendix C: Surface area and arc length--
Index

N2  - In "Nonplussed!" - a delightfully eclectic collection of paradoxes from many different areas of math - popular-math writer Julian Havil reveals the math that shows the truth of these and many other unbelievable ideas. "Nonplussed!" pays special attention to problems from probability and statistics, areas where intuition can easily be wrong. These problems include the vagaries of tennis scoring, what can be deduced from tossing a needle, and disadvantageous games that form winning combinations. Other chapters address everything from the historically important Torricelli's Trumpet to the mind-warping implications of objects that live on high dimensions. Readers learn about the colorful history and people associated with many of these problems in addition to their mathematical proofs.
ER  -