Slicing Pizzas, Racing Turtles, and Further Adventures in Applied MathematicsHave you ever daydreamed about digging a hole to the other side of the world? Robert Banks not only entertains such ideas but, better yet, he supplies the mathematical know-how to turn fantasies into problem-solving adventures. In this sequel to the popular Towing Icebergs, Falling Dominoes (Princeton, 1998), Banks presents another collection of puzzles for readers interested in sharpening their thinking and mathematical skills. The problems range from the wondrous to the eminently practical. In one chapter, the author helps us determine the total number of people who have lived on earth; in another, he shows how an understanding of mathematical curves can help a thrifty lover, armed with construction paper and scissors, keep expenses down on Valentine's Day. |
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... folded pentagram" pyramid with a pentagon base of radius r. Show that the height of the pyramid is H/r = d and its volume is. v-logo. More Stars, Honeycombs, and Snowflakes Skinny Pentagrams and Fat Pentagrams. r & (1.8) 12 C H A P T E R 1.
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Contents
3 | |
13 | |
Chapter 3 Slicing Things Like Pizzas and Watermelons | 23 |
Chapter 4 Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head and Other Goodies | 34 |
Chapter 5 Raindrops and Other Goodies Revisited | 44 |
Chapter 6 Which Major Rivers Flow Uphill? | 49 |
Chapter 7 A Brief Look at π e and Some Other Famous Numbers | 57 |
Chapter 8 Another Look at Some Famous Numbers | 69 |
Chapter 16 The Great Explosion of 2023 | 146 |
Chapter 17 How to make Fairly Nice Valentines | 153 |
Chapter 18 Somewhere over the Rainbow | 163 |
Chapter 19 Making Mathematical Mountains | 177 |
Chapter 20 How to make Mountains out of Molehills | 184 |
Chapter 21 Moving Continents from here to there | 196 |
How to Flatten Spheres | 204 |
Chapter 23 Growth and Spreading and Mathematical Analogies | 219 |
Prime Fibonacci and Hailstone | 78 |
Chapter 10 A Fast way to Escape | 97 |
Chapter 11 How to Get Anywhere in about FortyTwo Minutes | 105 |
Chapter 12 How Fast should you Run in the Rain? | 114 |
Pursuit Curves | 123 |
Logarithmic Spirals | 131 |
Chapter 15 How Many People have Ever Lived? | 138 |
Chapter 24 How Long is the Seam on a Baseball? | 232 |
Chapter 25 Baseball Seams Pipe Connections and World Travels | 247 |
Chapter 26 Lengths Areas and Volumes of all Kinds of Shapes | 256 |
References | 279 |
Index | 285 |