The Pleasures of Counting by T. W. K?ner

by T.W. Körner

Ranging from the design of anchors and the Battle of the Atlantic to the outbreak of cholera in Victorian Soho, this text describes a variety of lively topics that continue to intrigue professional mathematicians. Relatively simple terms and ideas are used.

Genres: Mathematics, Science, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Academic, Stem, Popular Science

Paperback Bunko

First published December 5, 1996

About the author

Thomas William Körner (born 17 February 1946) is a British pure mathematician and the author of school books. He is titular Professor of Fourier Analysis in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity Hall. He is the son of the philosopher Stephan Körner and of Edith Körner.

He studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and wrote his PhD thesis Some Results on Kronecker, Dirichlet and Helson Sets there in 1971, studying under Nicholas Varopoulos. In 1972 he won the Salem Prize.

He has written three academic mathematics books aimed at undergraduates, and two books aimed at secondary school students, the popular 1996 title The Pleasures of Counting and Naive Decision Making (published 2008) on probability, statistics and game theory.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...it is not necessary to understand everything in a book to derive great benefit from it. If a book shows us new patterns of thought and allows us to glimpse new ideas, however fleetingly, it lays down a foundation on which a later, fuller understanding can be built." p.502

Korner is an engaging, knowledgeable, sometimes disarming and always encouraging guide to the material. Even though I didn't understand most of it, he made me feel like I could someday, with serious effort, should I feel compelled to summon it (not likely I'm afraid). And even though I didn't do most of the exercises, he made me think hard about the problems they address. The foundation has been laid.

As a librarian with an arts and humanities background, I really have no business reading this book--a full 95% of the mathematics involved is over my head (maybe closer to 98%, ok 99%)--but I was inspired by Helen DeWitt's extraordinary book The Last Samurai. In the Afterword she laments that "we don't live in a society where every schoolchild" has a copy. I'm glad I pushed through, though I suspect the schoolchildren are happy with society as it turned out. A typical passage: "...the reader armed with an accurate ten-figure calculator will feel confident of doing the next exercise in considerably less than an hour." (!)

At the end is a small treasure of books for further reading, for those wonderful people who desire *more* of this sort of thing. That is something I appreciate in all non-fiction (and fiction, should we be so lucky) as it typically guides my reading. It is in fact why I read this book at all, thanks to DeWitt. A book like this is an effective reminder that there are people as conversant in mathematical algorithms and theorems as the rest of us portend to be about the best shows on television. I'm so glad they're out there doing the work. Now back to Broad City.

[Ushan · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is much pleasure to be found in applied mathematics, and much profit. Applied mathematicians, many of whom were British, many of whom were associated with Cambridge University, broke the Enigma code, improved submarine-hunting procedures during the Battle of the Atlantic, and explained why trees and animal circulatory systems have fractal structure (it has to do with flow of viscous liquids through pipes). Other chapters skim through sorting algorithms, TEX, special relativity, epidemiology, calendar design and many more topics. I wish I had read it at age 19. I am reminded of the school for telepaths in Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man (which I last read at age 11 and may be wrong about the particulars), where the receptionist tells all visitors to leave through one door while sending a powerful telepathic signal directing them through another door, which is where latent telepaths go. This book is such a signal for latent mathematicians.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every topic is totally engrossing, brilliantly explained, and new to me.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book. It's advanced high school level -- the user should ideally know calculus. It's full of fun vignettes about various applications of mathematics over the 20th century. This is one of my all time favorite books.

[Sandy Maguire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the sample and that was enough.

[carmen bauer]

brilliant, simply brilliant

[Bryce Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. Non-mathematicians are unlikely to enjoy this book. Some parts were fun (Enigma, biological scaling, Einstein), and some parts were boring (anchors, convoys), but this is very likely a matter of personal taste. The level of prose is better than a well-written research paper but maybe not too much better. In any case I think the intended audience--early undergrad math students--would get a lot out of it, so it certainly succeeds from that vantage point.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although one cannot help but be in awe of the scale and scope of Professor Korner's subject matter and the depth of his understanding, the mathematics was somewhat beyond my abilities when I attempted to read this. The author could perhaps have made it easier to follow for those of us who weren't quite keeping up with the counting (so to speak), although his story-telling is, well, kind of cute.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 5 out of 5]

la mia recensione: http://xmau.com/notiziole/archives/00...

[Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for maths interview. Very engaging covering a whole wealth of topics.