The Pea and the Sun
by Leonard M. Wapner · first published 2005
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"Take an apple and cut it into five pieces. Would you believe that these five pieces can be reassembled in such a fashion so as to create two apples equal in shape and size to the original? Would you believe that you could make something as large as the sun by breaking a pea into a finite number of pieces and putting it back together again? Neither did Leonard Wapner, author of The Pea and the Sun, when he was first introduced to the Banach-Tarski paradox, which asserts exactly such a notion." "The Pea and the Sun catalogues the people, events, and mathematics that contributed to the discovery
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Stan Wagon's book about the B-T paradox is absolutely superb, but for mathematicians only. I've heard good things about Wapner's "The pea and the sun", intended for a lay audience -- e.g., the reviews at http://www.maa.org/reviews/PeaSun.html and http://www.ams.org/notices/200609/rev-komjath.pdf -- but I haven't read it myself. (Speaking of Stan Wagon…
on “The Banach–Tarski paradox” ↗Maybe this one "[The Pea And The Sun](https://www.amazon.com/Pea-Sun-Mathematical-Paradox/dp/15688.... It reads in a nice flow and shows theoretical math in an understandable way even though it covers a very complex theorem.
on “Ask HN: Recommend a maths book for a teenager?” ↗