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How Math Explains the World A Guide to the Power of Numbers, from Car Repair to Modern Physics

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ISBN-10: 0061241768

ISBN-13: 9780061241765

Edition: 2008

Authors: James D. Stein, James D. Stein

List price: $24.99
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Description:

In How Math Explains the World, mathematician Stein reveals how seemingly arcane mathematical investigations and discoveries have led to bigger, more world-shaking insights into the nature of our world. In the four main sections of the book, Stein tells the stories of the mathematical thinkers who discerned some of the most fundamental aspects of our universe. From their successes and failures, delusions, and even duels, the trajectories of their innovations-and their impact on society-are traced in this fascinating narrative. Quantum mechanics, space-time, chaos theory and the workings of complex systems, and the impossibility of a "perfect" democracy are all here. Stein's book is both…    
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Book details

List price: $24.99
Copyright year: 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 4/22/2008
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Size: 6.00" wide x 9.00" long x 0.97" tall
Weight: 1.034
Language: English

James D. Stein is a professor of mathematics at California State University, Long Beach. A graduate of Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, he lives in Redondo Beach, California.

Preface
Introduction
Prologue: Why Your Car Never Seems to Be Ready When They Promised
Describing the Universe
The Measure of All Things
Reality Checks
All Things Great and Small
The Incomplete Toolbox
Impossible Constructions
The Hope Diamond of Mathematics
Never the Twain Shall Meet
Even Logic Has Limits
Space and Time: Is That All There Is?
Information: The Goldilocks Dilemma
Murphy's Law
The Disorganized Universe
The Raw Materials
The Unattainable Utopia
Cracks in the Foundation
The Smoke-Filled Rooms
Through a Glass Darkly
Index