This book is an abundant source of mathematical jokes and riddles, to entertain
the kids (and adults) at home and school. The stories of the unintentional
currency-trader who kept himself supplied with razor blades, and the bear-hunter
who was able to walk a three-sided square, come immediately to mind.
Educational: This book remains, though, a mathematics text, albeit presented in
a fun way. It is, indeed, where I learned about topology.

Thought-Provoking: Above all, this book serves as a graphic warning to all
would-be careless drivers on the roads of mathematics. The impression made by
the stories in this book have most certainly made my mind more sensitive to
the warning signs of division-by-zero in my algebra and of inadvertant, implicit
assumptions in my proofs. It has also brought home to me the subjective, context-
dependent nature of all mathematical definitions (for example that of "mean" in
statistics).

Download File Size:14.54 MB

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