The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting numbers
by David G. Wells · first published 1986
2mentions
1recommended by
2HN commenters
2022–2023first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
Why was the number of Hardy's taxi significant? Why does Graham's number need its own notation? How many grains of sand would fill the universe? What is the connection between the Golden Ratio and sunflowers? Why is 999 more than a distress call? All these questions and a host more are answered in this fascinating book, which has now been newly revised, with nearly 200 extra entries and some 250 additions to the original entries. From minus one and its square root, via cyclic, weird, amicable, perfect, untouchable and lucky numbers, aliquot sequences, the Cattle problem, Pascal's triangle and
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I can recommend the following: John Derbyshire's Unknown Quantity - A real and imaginary history of algebra David Well's The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers William Dunham's The Mathematical Universe - An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems and Personalities Alex Bello's Alex's Adventures in The Numberland - Dispatches from the wonderful…
on “Ask HN: Books that made you fascinated to learn more mathematics?” ↗…number that doesn’t appear in any sequences automatically promotes it to interesting; it’s some kind of sequence prime without being an actual prime. Also, there is a catalog of interesting numbers: the Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting numbers. A college prof of mine would read an entry before each class. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-penguin-dictionary-of-curi...
on “The Most Boring Number in the World Is ...” ↗