Wonders of Numbers: Adventures in Mathematics, Mind, and Meaning

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 2
Works by Clifford A. Pickover......Page 3
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Dedication......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
A Word from the Publisher about Dr. Googol......Page 9
Preface: One Fish, Two Fish, and Beyond .........Page 11
Contents......Page 16
Part I Fun Puzzles and Quick Thoughts......Page 22
1 Attack of the Amateurs......Page 23
2 Why Don\'t We Use Roman Numerals Anymore?......Page 27
3 In a Casino......Page 32
4 The Ultimate Bible Code......Page 33
5 How Much Blood?......Page 34
6 Where Are the Ants?......Page 36
7 Spidery Math......Page 37
8 Lost in Hyperspace......Page 39
9 Along Came a Spider......Page 40
10 Numbers beyond Imagination......Page 41
11 Cupid\'s Arrow......Page 43
12 Poseidon Arrays......Page 44
13 Scales of Justice......Page 45
14 Mystery Squares......Page 47
15 Quincunx......Page 48
16 Jerusalem Overdrive......Page 54
17 The Pipes of Papua......Page 55
18 The Fractal Society......Page 59
19 The Triangle Cycle......Page 62
20 IQ-Block......Page 63
21 Riffraff......Page 65
22 Klingon Paths......Page 67
23 Ouroboros Autophagy......Page 68
24 Interview with a Number......Page 70
25 The Dream-Worms of Atlantis......Page 71
26 Satanic Cycles......Page 73
27 Persistence......Page 75
28 Hallucinogenic Highways......Page 76
Part II Quirky Questions, Lists, and Surveys......Page 78
29 Why Was the First Woman Mathematician Murdered?......Page 79
30 What if We Receive Messages from the Stars?......Page 81
31 A Ranking of the 5 Strangest Mathematicians Who Ever Lived......Page 84
32 Einstein, Ramanujan, Hawking......Page 87
33 A Ranking of the 8 Most Influential Female Mathematicians......Page 90
34 A Ranking of the 5 Saddest Mathematical Scandals......Page 94
35 The 10 Most important Unsolved Mathematical Problems......Page 95
36 A Ranking of the 10 Most Influential Mathematicians Who Ever Lived......Page 99
37 What is Gödel\'s Mathematical Proof of the Existence of God?......Page 103
38 A Ranking of the 10 Most Influential Mathematicians Alive Today......Page 105
39 A Ranking of the 10 Most Interesting Numbers......Page 109
40 The Unabomber\'s 10 Most Mathematical Technical Papers......Page 112
41 The 10 Mathematical Formulas That Changed the Face of the World......Page 114
42 The 10 Most Difficult to-Understand Areas of Mathematics......Page 119
43 The 10 Strangest Mathematical Titles Ever Published......Page 122
44 The 15 Most Famous Transcendental Numbers......Page 124
45 What is Numerical Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?......Page 127
46 Who is the Number King?......Page 130
47 What 1 Question Would You Add?......Page 133
48 Cube Maze......Page 134
Part III Fiendishly Difficult Digital Delights......Page 136
49 Hailstone Numbers......Page 137
50 The Spring of Khosrow Carpet......Page 140
51 The Omega Prism......Page 142
52 The incredible Hunt for Double Smoothly Undulating integers......Page 144
53 Alien Snow: A Tour of Checkerboard Worlds......Page 145
54 Beauty, Symmetry, and Pascal\'s Triangle......Page 151
55 Audioactive Decay......Page 155
56 Dr. Googol\'s Prime Plaid......Page 159
57 Saippuakauppias......Page 161
58 Emordnilap Numbers......Page 163
59 The Dudley Triangle......Page 165
60 Mozart Numbers......Page 167
61 Hyperspace Prisons......Page 168
62 Triangular Numbers......Page 170
63 Hexagonal Cats......Page 173
64 The X-Files Number......Page 177
65 A Low-Calorie Treat......Page 179
66 The Hunt for Elusive Squarions......Page 182
67 Katydid Sequences......Page 185
68 Pentagonal Pie......Page 186
69 An A?......Page 188
70 Humble Bits......Page 192
71 Mr. Fibonacci\'s Neighborhood......Page 194
72 Apocalyptic Numbers......Page 197
73 The Wonderful Emirp, 1,597......Page 199
74 The Big Brain of Brahmagupta......Page 201
75 1,001 Scheherazades......Page 203
76 73,939,133......Page 205
77 U-Numbers from Los Alamos......Page 206
78 Creator Numbers......Page 208
79 Princeton Numbers......Page 210
80 Parasite Numbers......Page 214
81 Madonna\'s Number Sequence......Page 215
82 Apocalyptic Powers......Page 216
83 The Leviathan Number......Page 217
84 The Safford Number:365,365,365,365,365,365......Page 218
85 The Aliens from Independence Day......Page 219
86 One Decillion Cheerios......Page 222
87 Undulation in Monaco......Page 223
88 The Latest Gossip on Narcissistic Numbers......Page 225
89 The abcdefghij Problem......Page 226
90 Grenade Stacking......Page 227
91 The 450-Pound Problem......Page 228
92 The Hunt for Primes in Pi......Page 230
93 Schizophrenic Numbers......Page 231
94 Perfect, Amicable, and Sublime Numbers......Page 233
95 Prime Cycles and ╛......Page 237
96 Cards, Frogs, and Fractal Sequences......Page 238
97 Fractal Checkers......Page 243
98 Doughnut Loops......Page 245
99 Everything You Wanted to Know about Triangles but Were Afraid to Ask......Page 247
100 Cavern Genesis as a Self-Organizing System......Page 250
101 Magic Squares, Tesseracts, and Other Oddities......Page 254
102 Fabergé Eggs Synthesis......Page 260
103 Beauty and Gaussian Rational Numbers......Page 264
104 A Brief History of Smith Numbers......Page 268
105 Alien Ice Cream......Page 269
Part IV The Peruvian Collection......Page 272
106 The Huascarán Box......Page 273
107 The Intergalactic Zoo......Page 274
108 The Lobsterman from Lima......Page 275
109 The Incan Tablets......Page 276
110 Chinchilla Overdrive......Page 278
111 Peruvian Laser Battle......Page 279
112 The Emerald Gambit......Page 280
113 Wise Viracocha......Page 281
114 Zoologic......Page 283
115 Andromeda Incident......Page 284
116 Yin or Yang......Page 286
117 A Knotty Challenge at Tacna......Page 287
118 An Incident at Chavin de Huántar......Page 288
119 An Odd Symmetry......Page 289
120 The Monolith at Madre de Dios......Page 291
121 Amazon Dissection......Page 292
122 3 Weird Problems with 3......Page 293
123 Zen Archery......Page 296
124 Treadmills and Gears......Page 297
125 Anchovy Marriage Test......Page 299
Further Exploring......Page 302
Further Reading......Page 401
About the Author......Page 412
Index......Page 414