Mazur (mathematics, Marlboro College), like many a mathematician before him, seeks the truth. How he goes about it is to examine three kinds of logic, those from the ancient Greeks, the strange logic of infinity, and the everyday, practical, plausible logic that basically drives most scientific inquiry today. In a series of 16 zippy chapters, Mazur looks into what logic actually is and how and when it shows up, the various configurations of infinity as they strike such disparate surfaces as set theory and irrational numbers, and the ordinary, everyday logic that underlies the math that may or may not reflect the real world. Mazur's appendices double as very well-explained exercises. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math

Science & Math

Mazur, Joseph

Biological Sciences

Dutton Adult

Number is an eloquent, accessible tour de force that reveals how the concept of number evolved from prehistoric times through the twentieth century. Tobias Dantzig shows that the development of math—from the invention of counting to the discovery of infinity—is a profoundly human story that progressed by “trying and erring, by groping and stumbling.” He shows how commerce, war, and religion led to advances in math, and he recounts the stories of individuals whose breakthroughs expanded the concept of number and created the mathematics that we know today.

Number: The Language of Science, The Masterpiece Science Edition

Dantzig, Tobias

Mazur, Barry

Mathematics

Pi Press

 Like Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, and David Berlinski’s A Tour of the  Calculus, Euclid in the Rainforest combines the literary with the mathematical to explore  logic—the one indispensable tool in man’s quest to understand the world. Underpinning both  math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of  the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and  quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the  muddled relationship between math and the real world. Ultimately, Mazur argues, logical  reasoning is not purely robotic. At its most basic level, it is a creative process guided by our  intuitions and beliefs about the world.

A tour of clocks throughout the centuries—from the sandglass to the telomere—to reveal the physical, biological, and social nature of time What is time? This question has fascinated philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists for thousands of years. Why does time seem to speed up with age? What is its connection with memory, anticipation, and sleep cycles? Award-winning author and mathematician Joseph Mazur provides an engaging exploration of how the understanding of time has evolved throughout human history and offers a compelling new vision, submitting that time lives within us. Our cells, he notes, have a temporal awareness, guided by environmental cues in sync with patterns of social interaction. Readers learn that, as a consequence of time’s personal nature, a forty-eight-hour journey on the Space Shuttle can feel shorter than a six-hour trip on the Soyuz capsule, that the Amondawa of the Amazon do not have ages, and that time speeds up with fever and slows down when we feel in danger. With a narrative punctuated by personal stories of time’s effects on truck drivers, Olympic racers, prisoners, and clockmakers, Mazur’s journey is filled with fascinating insights into how our technologies, our bodies, and our attitudes can change our perceptions. Ultimately, time reveals itself as something that rides on the rhythms of our minds. The Clock Mirage presents an innovative perspective that will force us to rethink our relationship with time, and how best to use it.

The Clock Mirage: Our Myth of Measured Time

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Yale University Press

Like Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, and David Berlinski’s A Tour of the Calculus, Euclid in the Rainforest combines the literary with the mathematical to explore logic—the one indispensable tool in man’s quest to understand the world. Underpinning both math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the muddled relationship between math and the real world. Ultimately, Mazur argues, logical reasoning is not purely robotic. At its most basic level, it is a creative process guided by our intuitions and beliefs about the world.

Penguin Publishing Group

"Beyond doubt the most interesting book on the evolution of mathematics which has ever fallen into my hands."—Albert Einstein Number is an eloquent, accessible tour de force that reveals how the concept of number evolved from prehistoric times through the twentieth century. Renowned professor of mathematics Tobias Dantzig shows that the development of math—from the invention of counting to the discovery of infinity—is a profoundly human story that progressed by “trying and erring, by groping and stumbling.” He shows how commerce, war, and religion led to advances in math, and he recounts the stories of individuals whose breakthroughs expanded the concept of number and created the mathematics that we know today.

Number: The Language of Science

Plume

The fascinating story of an ancient riddle?and what it reveals about the nature of time and space Three millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Zeno constructed a series of logical paradoxes to prove that motion is impossible. Today, these paradoxes remain on the cutting edge of our investigations into the fabric of space and time. Zeno?s Paradox uses the motion paradox as a jumping-off point for an exploration of the twenty-five-hundred-year quest to uncover the true nature of the universe. From Galileo to Einstein to Stephen Hawking, some of the greatest minds in history have tackled the problem and made spectacular breakthroughs?but through it all, the paradox of motion remains.

Zeno's Paradox: Unraveling the Ancient Mystery Behind the Science of Space and Time

History & Philosophy

A mathematical guide to understanding why life can seem to be one big coincidence-and why the odds of just about everything are better than we would think. What are the chances? This is the question we ask ourselves when we encounter the strangest and most seemingly impossible coincidences, like the woman who won the lottery four times or the fact that Lincoln's dreams foreshadowed his own assassination. But, when we look at coincidences mathematically, the odds are a lot better than any of us would have thought. In Fluke, mathematician Joseph Mazur takes a second look at the seemingly improbable, sharing with us an entertaining guide to the most surprising moments in our lives. He takes us on a tour of the mathematical concepts of probability, such as the law of large numbers and the birthday paradox, and combines these concepts with lively anecdotes of flukes from around the world. How do you explain finding your college copy of Moby Dick in a used bookstore on the Seine on your first visit to Paris? How can a jury be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that DNA found at the scene of a heinous crime did not get there by some fluke? Should we be surprised if strangers named Maria and Francisco, seeking each other in a hotel lobby, accidentally meet the wrong Francisco and the wrong Maria, another pair of strangers also looking for each other? As Mazur reveals, if there is any likelihood that something could happen, no matter how small, it is bound to happen to someone at some time. In Fluke, Mazur offers us proof of the inevitability of the sublime and the unexpected. He has written a book that will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered how all of the tiny decisions that happen in our lives add up to improbable wholes. A must-read for math enthusiasts and storytellers alike, Fluke helps us to understand the true nature of chance.

Fluke: The Math and Myth of Coincidence

Basic Books

The epic tale of an ancient, unsolved puzzle and how it relates to all scientific attempts to explain the basic structure of the universe At the dawn of science the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno formulated his paradox of motion, and amazingly, it is still on the cutting edge of all investigations into the fabric of reality. 
 Zeno used logic to argue that motion is impossible, and at the heart of his maddening puzzle is the nature of space and time. Is space-time continuous or broken up like a string of beads? Over the past two millennia, many of our greatest minds—including Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and other current theoreticians—have been gripped by the mystery this puzzle represents. 
 Joseph Mazur, acclaimed author of Euclid in the Rainforest, shows how historic breakthroughs in our understanding of motion shed light on Zeno’s paradox. The orbits of the planets were explained, the laws of motion were revealed, the theory of relativity was discovered—but the basic structure of time and space remained elusive. 
 In the tradition of Fermat’s Enigma and Zero, The Motion Paradox is a lively history of this apparently simple puzzle whose solution—if indeed it can be solved—will reveal nothing less than the fundamental nature of reality.

The Motion Paradox: The 2,500-Year Old Puzzle Behind All the Mysteries of Time and Space

Astronomy & Space Science

Dutton

Why do so many gamblers risk it all when they know the odds of winning are against them? Why do they believe dice are "hot" in a winning streak? Why do we expect heads on a coin toss after several flips have turned up tails? What's Luck Got to Do with It? takes a lively and eye-opening look at the mathematics, history, and psychology of gambling to reveal the most widely held misconceptions about luck. It exposes the hazards of feeling lucky, and uses the mathematics of predictable outcomes to show when our chances of winning are actually good.
 Mathematician Joseph Mazur traces the history of gambling from the earliest known archaeological evidence of dice playing among Neolithic peoples to the first systematic mathematical studies of games of chance during the Renaissance, from government-administered lotteries to the glittering seductions of grand casinos, and on to the global economic crisis brought on by financiers' trillion-dollar bets. Using plenty of engaging anecdotes, Mazur explains the mathematics behind gambling--including the laws of probability, statistics, betting against expectations, and the law of large numbers--and describes the psychological and emotional factors that entice people to put their faith in winning that ever-elusive jackpot despite its mathematical improbability.
 As entertaining as it is informative, What's Luck Got to Do with It? demonstrates the pervasive nature of our belief in luck and the deceptive psychology of winning and losing.

What's Luck Got to Do with It?: The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler's Illusion

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

Princeton University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mazur, Joseph. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mazur, Joseph

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mazur, Joseph. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math

Number: The Language of Science, The Masterpiece Science Edition

Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math

The Clock Mirage: Our Myth of Measured Time

Euclid in the Rainforest: Discovering Universal Truth in Logic and Math

Number: The Language of Science

Zeno's Paradox: Unraveling the Ancient Mystery Behind the Science of Space and Time

Fluke: The Math and Myth of Coincidence

The Motion Paradox: The 2,500-Year Old Puzzle Behind All the Mysteries of Time and Space

What's Luck Got to Do with It?: The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler's Illusion