Book:Ian Stewart/Incredible Numbers

Ian Stewart: Incredible Numbers

Published $\text {2015}$, Profile

ISBN 978 1781254103

Contents

Preface

Numbers

Small Numbers

$1 \quad$ The Indivisible Unit

$2 \quad$ Odd and Even

$3 \quad$ Cubic Equation

$4 \quad$ Square

$5 \quad$ Pythagorean Hypotenuse

$6 \quad$ Kissing Number

$7 \quad$ Fourth Prime

$8 \quad$ Fibonacci Cube

$9 \quad$ Magic Square

$10 \quad$ Decimal System

Zero and Negative Numbers

$0 \quad$ Is Nothing a Number?

$-1 \quad$ Less Than Nothing

Complex Numbers

$i \quad$ Imaginary Number

Rational Numbers

$\frac 1 2 \quad$ Dividing the Indivisible

$\frac {22} 7 \quad$ Approximation to $\pi$

$\frac {466} {885} \quad$ Tower of Hanoi

Irrational Numbers

$\sqrt 2 \sim 1.414213 \quad$ First Known Irrational

$\pi \sim 3.141592 \quad$ Circle Measurement

$\phi \sim 1.618034 \quad$ Golden Number

$e \sim 2.718281 \quad$ Natural Logarithms

$\frac {\log 2} {\log 3} \sim 1.584962 \quad$ Fractals

$\frac \pi {\sqrt{18} } \quad$ Sphere Packing

$\sqrt [12] 2 \sim 1.059463 \quad$ Musical Scale

$\zeta \left({3}\right) \sim 1.202056 \quad$ Apéry's Constant

$\gamma \sim 0.577215 \quad$ Euler's Constant

Special Small Numbers

$11 \quad$ String Theory

$12 \quad$ Pentominoes

$17 \quad$ Polygons and Patterns

$23 \quad$ Birthday Paradox

$26 \quad$ Secret Codes

$56 \quad$ Sausage Conjecture

$168 \quad$ Finite Geometry

Special Big Numbers

$26! = 403,291,461,126,605,635,584,000,000 \quad$ Factorials

$43,252,003,274,489,856,000 \quad$ Rubik Cube

$6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 \quad$ Sudoku

$2^{57,885,161} - 1$ (total of $17,425,170$ digits) $\quad$ Largest Known Prime

Infinite Numbers

$\aleph_0 \quad$ Smallest Infinity

$c \quad$ Cardinality of Continuum

Life, the Universe, and ...

$42 \quad$ Not Boring at All

Further Reading

Figure Acknowledgements