LEADER 00000cam 2200469Li 4500
001 ocn774285469
003 OCoLC
005 20160518080206.5
006 m o d
007 cr cn|||||||||
008 010501s2002 njua ob 001 0 eng d
019 769342158
020 9781400841516|q(electronic bk.)
020 1400841518|q(electronic bk.)
035 (OCoLC)774285469|z(OCoLC)769342158
040 E7B|beng|epn|erda|cE7B|dN$T|dOCLCQ|dDEBSZ|dOCLCQ|dEDX
|dJSTOR|dOCLCF|dYDXCP|dEBLCP|dOCLCQ
049 GTKE
050 4 QA165|b.P53 2002eb
082 04 511/.64|221
100 1 Pickover, Clifford A.
245 14 The Zen of magic squares, circles, and stars :|ban
exhibition of surprising structures across dimensions /
|cClifford A. Pickover.
264 1 Princeton, N.J. :|bPrinceton University Press,|c[2002]
264 4 |c©2002
300 1 online resource (xx, 405 pages) :|billustrations
336 text|btxt|2rdacontent
337 computer|bc|2rdamedia
338 online resource|bcr|2rdacarrier
504 Includes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 Cover; THE ZEN OF MAGIC SQUARES, CIRCLES, AND STARS;
Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Preface;
Acknowledgments; Introduction; CHAPTER ONE Magic
Construction; CHAPTER TWO Classification; CHAPTER THREE
Gallery 1: Squares, Cubes, and Tesseracts; CHAPTER FOUR
Gallery 2: Circles and Spheres; CHAPTER FIVE Gallery 3:
Stars, Hexagons, and Other Beauties; Some Final Thoughts;
Notes; For Further Reading; Index; About the Author.
520 Humanity's love affair with mathematics and mysticism
reached a critical juncture, legend has it, on the back of
a turtle in ancient China. As Clifford Pickover briefly
recounts in this enthralling book, the most comprehensive
in decades on magic squares, Emperor Yu was supposedly
strolling along the Yellow River one day around 2200 B.C.
when he spotted the creature: its shell had a series of
dots within squares. To Yu's amazement, each row of
squares contained fifteen dots, as did the columns and
diagonals. When he added any two cells opposite along a
line through the center square, like 2 and 8, he always
arrived at 10. The turtle, unwitting inspirer of the
''Yu'' square, went on to a life of courtly comfort and
fame. Pickover explains why Chinese emperors, Babylonian
astrologer-priests, prehistoric cave people in France, and
ancient Mayans of the Yucatan were convinced that magic
squares--arrays filled with numbers or letters in certain
arrangements--held the secret of the universe. Since the
dawn of civilization, he writes, humans have invoked such
patterns to ward off evil and bring good fortune. Yet who
would have guessed that in the twenty-first century,
mathematicians would be studying magic squares so immense
and in so many dimensions that the objects defy ordinary
human contemplation and visualization? Readers are treated
to a colorful history of magic squares and similar
structures, their construction, and classification along
with a remarkable variety of newly discovered objects
ranging from ornate inlaid magic cubes to hypercubes.
Illustrated examples occur throughout, with some patterns
from the author's own experiments. The tesseracts, circles,
spheres, and stars that he presents perfectly convey the
age-old devotion of the math-minded to this Zenlike quest.
Number lovers, puzzle aficionados, and math enthusiasts
will treasure this rich and lively encyclopedia of one of
the few areas of mathematics where the contributions of
even nonspecialists count.
650 0 Magic squares.
650 0 Mathematical recreations.
650 7 MATHEMATICS|xCombinatorics.|2bisacsh
650 7 MATHEMATICS|xRecreations & Games.|2bisacsh
650 7 Magic squares.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst01005506
650 7 Mathematical recreations.|2fast|0(OCoLC)fst01012120
655 0 Electronic books.
776 08 |iPrint version:|aPickover, Clifford A.|tZen of Magic
Squares, Circles, and Stars : An Exhibition of Surprising
Structures across Dimensions.|dPrinceton : Princeton
University Press, ©2003|z9780691115979
914 ocn774285469
994 93|bGTK
