This week we’re giving away a hardcover copy of a great book to one lucky reader. To enter Math Blog’s July giveaway, please follow the instructions below.
PRIZE DETAILS
For this giveaway, the prize is a copy of the book, The Mathematics of Various Entertaining Subjects: Research in Recreational Math.
There are a couple of cues that this book is not quite what it seems. First, it’s a $75 USD book, which is unusually high for a book on puzzles. Then there is that word, “research” in the tagline.
If you weren’t paying attention to those two cues, you might be deceived into thinking that this is an ordinary book that explores some common puzzles and games, and which shows you how to solve them with elementary mathematics (the crosswords and cards on the cover only add to that possibility).
The truth is that there is so much more to this book than meets the eyes. Yes, it talks about puzzles and popular games. Yes, it shows you how to solve them. Where things get really interesting however, is that the the ideas are stretched further into new theorem territory.
For example, at some point this book explores the familiar Tower of Hanoi problem. I mean, what more is there to say about that problem? It turns out there’s a lot, if we consider, as the authors did, the approach to solving the problem via random moves. And from there, note how the problem can be solved via a network of electrical resistors.
This book has impressive mathematical rigor. To what degree? It is essentially a collection of 17 research papers on the subject of recreational puzzles, authored by a couple of dozen well-established mathematicians. The writing remains clear and approachable across the board, but you’re also looking at some real math within.
I also appreciate that it’s a beautiful math title that includes numerous, often colorful, illustrations. In short, it is a remarkable book and we are happy to give a copy to one lucky winner. Join the giveaway below.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS
We are using the Rafflecopter widget below. If you participated in our raffles before, you can skip the instructions and go straight for the widget.
The widget will ask you to log in by providing your name and email (or through Facebook).
Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be asked to subscribe to our mailing list. You’ll be able to do so by simply clicking the checkmark, which you can also click if you are a subscriber already. This action will enter you in the giveaway and give you 5 virtual raffle tickets. After the giveaway, if you dislike our post updates, you can unsubscribe at any time. We obviously care about our readers and would never spam you.
OK, you claimed your 5 points by subscribing and with them, you entered the giveaway. At this point, you’ll have the opportunity to gain up to 16 additional entries in the giveaway by completing other tasks. Namely, these are:
- Leaving a specific comment (read the instructions in the widget) (+5 entries)
- Tweeting about the giveaway (+3 entries)
- Sharing on Facebook (+3 entries)
- Following Princeton University Press on Twitter (+2 entries)
- Following my twitter account (+2 entries)
- Checking out Amazon’s review(s) for this book (+1 entry)
Note that all of these additional tasks are optional. Though, they can help your odds and they don’t take much time to complete.
At the end of Tuesday, July 19, 2016 (at midnight PST, so technically July 20th), the giveaway closes and a winner will be selected randomly from all the entries. The more entries you have out of the possible 21 entries, the greater your odds.
The widget will show you how many entries you have claimed and how many entries there are in total, as shown in the sample image below.
The winner will be contacted within 48 hours by email, and arrangements will be made to deliver the book to the winner’s physical address. Please note that in order to avoid unfair entries, the randomly selected winner’s entries will be verified to confirm that the actions were actually taken. If not, then a new random draw will be executed.
Best of luck!
Sourcebook in the Mathematics of Medieval Europe and North Africa
Wow, this is great! In the last giveaway by Math Blog and Antonio, this is the book that I made a post about from the Princeton University Press listing that seems very interesting! I like the synopsis that you gave about the book Antonio since I can only get a short look inside the book on the Princeton website. The chance to win a copy will keep me in anticipation until the 20th for sure!
I better make sure that my pencils are sharpened and my calculator has fresh batteries if I win…
(I got to go run some errands)
I saw this one last time and had me trying to choose between the two, but Beautiful Geometry by
Eli Maor & Eugen Jost. This subject will always make me look through a math book to see the “art” behind whatever graphics are used inside to showcase the math that is being described or taught, and if it doesn’t hold up, then I will go on to another math book, because if it gets the art of mathematics wrong they have left something behind, or just don’t get the connection between art and math! But this one seems to have hit a good spot with both and I want to check it out!!
Mathematics without Apologies:
Portrait of a Problematic Vocation
Rosenhouse is one of my favorite popular math writers, and I have no doubt that the book is excellently-presented (as typical of Princeton U. Press), but am still not clear quite what accounts for the $75 price tag (out of bounds for many readers). Could it not have been released in a soft-cover version at a lower price? Many who would enjoy the volume will probably skip it at that price.
Research-level mathematics books tend to be on the expensive side. This one is in color, on almost glossy paper, so I can see why it ended up being an expensive volume. (Though, third parties on Amazon do seem to have it for quite a bit less.) That said, I agree with you that a cheaper softcover edition would make it more popular.
Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future:
The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers
John MacCormick
Seems really interesting to me as a compsci major.
The Mathematics of Secrets: Cryptography from Caesar Ciphers to Digital Encryption by Joshua Holden would be a sweet giveaway for my new found love of Cryptography
Mathematics in Ancient Egypt: A Contextual History by Annette Imhausen would also be sweet
The Quotable Feynman
Richard P. Feynman
Mathematics in Ancient Egypt: A Contextual History Annette Imhausen
I work for a mathematics database as a librarian. This book came across my desk and I knew I had to get a copy! I couldn’t read the one we got due to processing restrictions.
Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment
Richard Feynman: To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature… If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in.
The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics is my pick.
Seems like a awesome book to read, especially knowing it was published by quite famous mathematicians. Also, i get to practice and be exposed to more math problems. Bonus!!!
I was browsing through the list supplied, and many books appealed to me. But the undisputed champion has to be The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, by Timothy Gowers. Having happened across it in my university library I knew I had to have it, as it is one of the most impressive tomes I’ve seen.