The pea and the sun : a mathematical paradox

Author(s)

    • Wapner, Leonard M.

Bibliographic Information

The pea and the sun : a mathematical paradox

Leonard M. Wapner

A K Peters, c2005

Available at  / 4 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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. Written in an engaging style, The Pea and the Sun catalogues the people, events, and mathematics that contributed to the discovery of Banach and Tarski's magical paradox. Wapner makes one of the most interesting problems of advanced mathematics accessible to the non-mathematician.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA7274659X
  • ISBN
    • 1568812132
  • LCCN
    2004063620
  • Country Code
    us
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Wellesley, Mass.
  • Pages/Volumes
    xiv, 218 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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