The Jungles of Randomness

A Mathematical Safari

  • 5 Want to read

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 5 Want to read

Buy this book

Last edited by MARC Bot
July 13, 2024 | History

The Jungles of Randomness

A Mathematical Safari

  • 5 Want to read

Join acclaimed science writer Ivars Peterson on an adventurous trek through an exotic world of weird dice, fractal drums, firefly rhythms and chaotic amusement park rides, as he explores the wilds of randomness. A tricky, intriguing, even elusive concept, randomness affects our lives in an astonishing range of ways - from the fun of games we play and the noise that spoils the music we hear, to the ways viruses grow and atoms combine.

Hidden rules and secret patterns lurk within apparently random events and chance encounters.

How likely is it that a fair coin will land heads up ten times in a row? How often might you meet a stranger at a party who shares your birthday? Are there really ways to win at roulette or beat a slot machine? How does the gait of a horse differ from that of a cockroach? Peterson uncovers the answers to a rich array of such tantalizing questions, revealing the surprising, ambiguous boundaries between order and chaos.

Along the way we also meet a host of characters, both charming and eccentric, who either made striking discoveries about randomness or were profoundly affected by it. There's the case of Williard Longcor, a man gripped with a passion for throwing dice, who meticulously records the outcomes of millions of tosses and helps correct the theory of the distribution of runs. And there's the tragic case of the brilliant novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who became addicted to the random spin of the roulette wheel.

The "wandering mathematician" Paul Erdos drops in with his famous greeting "my brain is open," and the visionary architect Buckminster Fuller remarks on the similarities between his geodesic domes and the structure of viruses. The Jungles of Randomness offers a delightful journey into the exciting world of mathematical discovery and imparts a rare vision of the fundamental playfulness of mathematics in our lives.

Publish Date
Publisher
John Wiley
Language
English
Pages
239

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Jungles of Randomness
Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari
2007, Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John
in English
Cover of: The Jungles of Randomness
The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari
1998, John Wiley & Sons
in English
Cover of: The Jungles of Randomness
The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari
1998, John Wiley
in English
Cover of: Jungles of Randomness
Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari
1998, Penguin Books, Limited
in English
Cover of: The Jungles of Randomness
The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari
October 3, 1997, Wiley
in English
Cover of: The jungles of randomness
The jungles of randomness: a mathematical safari
1997, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., John Wiley & Sons
Hardcover

Add another edition?

Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Published in
NewYork, Chichester

Classifications

Library of Congress
QA273.15 .P48 1998

The Physical Object

Pagination
xiii, 239p., [6]p. of col. plates :
Number of pages
239

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL19288290M
Internet Archive
junglesofrandomn0000pete
ISBN 10
0471295876
LCCN
97001275
Library Thing
177457
Goodreads
1615218

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

Lists

This work does not appear on any lists.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
July 13, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
November 19, 2022 Edited by Stew Fix title.
November 19, 2022 Edited by OnFrATa Merge works (MRID: 26696)
October 8, 2009 Created by WorkBot create work page