The Mathematics of Juggling

by Burkard Polster

As a juggler the author likes to finish his performances with a stunt that combines props and techniques from a variety of juggling disciplines. Imagine him idling on a giraffe unicycle, while balancing a spinning basketball on a mouth stick, and toss-juggling a sword, a toilet plunger, and a rubber chicken. As a mathematician he is also interested in the treasure trove of beautiful mathematics used to model the different activities in a juggler's repertoire. In this book he provides an intellectually stimulating collection of mostly self-contained mathematical essays that introduce the reader to many elegant results and techniques from a wide range of mathematical disciplines such as combinatorics, graph theory, knot theory, mechanics, differential equations, control theory, and robotics. "The Mathematics of Juggling" is the first comprehensive account summarizing and expanding the results in the literature on juggling tricks and skills, as well as the mathematics behind these tricks and skills. Anybody who is not put off by the word "mathematics" in the title of this book should have a good time reading it.

243 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2002

About the author

Burkard Polster is a maths lecturer, and Monash University's resident Mathemagician, mathematical juggler, origami expert, bubble-master, shoelace charmer, and Count von Count impersonator. When he is not doing fun mathematics he has fun investigating perfect mathematical universes.

from http://www.mav.vic.edu.au/public-lect...

Reviews

[Miika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers juggling and it's notation siteswap in an interesting manner. This is easily accessible and a good starting off point to understand things no matter from what direction you are approaching.