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The Math Instinct Devlin's new book appeals to an even broader general audience than his previous ones, providing an accessible, entertaining look at the instinctive math used by dogs, cats, birds, bees and, yes, even humans. Filled with wonderful stories and examples, it offers the inverse message of John Allen Poulos' Innumeracy, by explaining and celebrating the innate math sense of all kinds of animals and giving even the most number-phobic readers greater confidence in their own mathematical abilities.
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The Millennium Problems "In 2000, the Clay Foundation of Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced a historic competition: Whoever could solve any of seven extraordinarily difficult mathematical problems, and have the solution acknowledged as correct by the experts, would receive $1 million in prize money. There was some precedent for doing this: In 1900 David Hilbert, one of the greatest mathematicians of his day, proposed twenty-three problems, now known as the Hilbert Problems, that set much of the agenda for mathematics in the twentieth century. The Millennium Problems are likely to acquire similar stature, and their solution (or lack of one) will play a strong role in determining the course of mathematics in the current century. They encompass many of the most fascinating areas of pure and applied mathematics, from topology and number theory to particle physics, cryptography, computing and even aircraft design. Keith Devlin, renowned expositor of mathematics, tells here what the seven problems are, how they came about, and what they mean for math and science." These problems are the brass rings held out to today's mathematicians, glittering and just out of reach. In the hands of Devlin, "the Math Guy" from NPR's Weekend Edition, each Millennium Problem becomes a fascinating window onto the deepest and toughest questions in the field. For mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and everyone else with an interest in mathematics' cutting edge, The Millennium Problems is the definitive account of a subject that will have a very long shelf life. |
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The Math Gene A groundbreaking book about math and language, from the well-known NPR commentator Keith Devlin. If people are endowed with a "number instinct" similar to the "language instinct"-as recent research suggests-then why can't everyone do math? In The Math Gene, mathematician and popular writer Keith Devlin attacks both sides of this question. Devlin offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development that describes how language evolved in two stages and how its main purpose was not communication. Devlin goes on to show that the ability to think mathematically arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so crucial to the very first emergence of true language. Why, then, can't we do math as well as we speak? The answer, says Devlin, is that we can and do-we just don't recognize when we're using mathematical reasoning. |
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InfoSense Information. It has been called everything from the new gold standard to the fundamental building block of the universe. No matter where we live or what we do for a living, it is ever-present in our lives and many of us are barraged with it daily. Yet few of us know how to distinguish information from mere data, real knowledge, or worthwhile communication in short, few of us know how to make sense of it. In InfoSense, noted mathematician and popular science writer Keith Devlin shows us how to make sense of the constant flow of information that swirls past us daily. What is crucial, Devlin points out, is to understand the difference between data, information and knowledge. By exploring the nature of each, and describing what distinguishes them from each other, he shows how all of us-businesses and individuals alike-can benefit from better information management. Using clear, non-technical language, simple diagrams and many real-life examples, Devlin explains such important and far-reaching points as: As information becomes the single most valuable asset in many industries, the key to success lies in our ability to manage that information. With InfoSense, Keith Devlin offers an easy and accessible way to learn not only how to manage it but to use it to live and work successfully in the Knowledge Age. |
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Mathematics A Main Selection of the Library of Science Book Club Mathematics: The New Golden Age offers a glimpse of the extraordinary vistas and bizarre universes opened up by contemporary mathematicians: Hilberts tenth problem and the four-color theorem, Gaussian integers, chaotic dynamics and the Mandelbrot set, infinite numbers, and strange number systems. Why a "new golden age"? According to Keith Devlin, we are currently witnessing an astronomical amount of mathematical research. Charting the most significant developments that have taken place in mathematics since 1960, Devlin expertly describes these advances for the interested layperson and adroitly summarizes their significance as he leads the reader into the heart of the most interesting mathematical perplexities from the biggest known prime number to the Shimura-Taniyama conjecture for Fermats Last Theorem. Revised and updated to take into account dramatic developments of the 1980s and 1990s, Mathematics: The New Golden Age includes, in addition to Fermats Last Theorem, major new sections on knots and topology, and the mathematics of the physical universe. Devlin portrays mathematics not as a collection of procedures for solving problems, but as a unified part of human culture, as part of mankind's eternal quest to understand ourselves and the world in which we live. Though a genuine science, mathematics has strong artistic elements as well; this creativity is in evidence here as Devlin shows what mathematicians do and reveals that it has little to do with numbers and arithmetic. This book brilliantly captures the fascinating new age of mathematics. |
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Goodbye, Descartes What are the laws of thought that allow human beings to reason and communicate so effectively? Can rules of thought and language be written down and programmed into computers that will one day think and communicate as well as we do? In a lively and stimulating narrative, acclaimed author Keith Devlin chronicles scientists' centuries-old quest to discover the laws of thought, from the astonishingly adept efforts of the ancient Greeks, to the invention of the first primitive "thinking machine" in the late nineteenth century, to radical findings that are challenging the very notion that the mind follows logical rules. A Selection of the Newbridge Library of Science and Reader's Subscription.
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The Language of Mathematics "The great book of nature," said Galileo, "can be read only by those who know the language in which it was written. And this language is mathematics." In The Language of Mathematics, award-winning author Keith Devlin reveals the vital role mathematics plays in our eternal quest to understand who we are and the world we live in. More than just the study of numbers, mathematics provides us with the eyes to recognize and describe the hidden patterns of life--patterns that exist in the physical, biological, and social worlds without, and the realm of ideas and thoughts within. Taking the reader on a wondrous journey through the invisible universe that surrounds us--a universe made visible by mathematics--Devlin shows us what keeps a jumbo jet in the air, explains how we can see and hear a football game on TV, allows us to predict the weather, the behavior of the stock market, and the outcome of elections. Microwave ovens, telephone cables, children's toys, pacemakers, automobiles, and computers--all operate on mathematical principles. Far from a dry and esoteric subject, mathematics is a rich and living part of our culture. A brilliant exploration of an often woefully misunderstood subject The Language of Mathematics celebrates the simplicity, the precision, the purity, and the elegance of mathematics. |
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Logic and Information In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Keith Devlin argues that in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of intelligence and knowledge acquisition, we must broaden our concept of logic. Classical logic, beginning with the work of Aristotle, has developed into a powerful and rigorous mathematical theory with many applications in mathematics and computer science, but it has proved woefully inadequate in the search for artificial intelligence. The new kind of logic, also mathematically based, outlined by Professor Devlin is the culmination of collaborative research among some of the world's leading logicians, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. It introduces the concepts of infon, a quantum of information, and situations, a dynamical generalization of sets, and is capable of handling the issues involved in human communication, thought, speech, and machine information processing. |
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