What do you think?
Rate this book
The Magic Numbers of the Professor
The Professor in Owen O'Shea's book is the imaginary American Richard Stein. As Owen O'Shea and the Professor travel through Ireland, O'Shea notes the Professor's collection of amazing magic numbers in fascinating detail. His mathematical curiosities are wide ranging, concerning the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania to coincidences about Apollo 11 to the first moon walk to new numerical curiosities. The new curiosities, among many others, center on Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy; the USA and Ireland; the two World Wars; the King James Version of the Bible, and James Joyce. The Number of the Beast, 666, is discussed as well, as are many new equations involving that famous number - all appearing here for the first time. And for those fascinated by games and gambling, a number of curious proposition bets involving dice, darts, and playing cards, and various mathematical puzzles are scattered throughout this singularly entertaining book.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 5, 2015
If you are a fan of number coincidences, or believe in any form of numerology then this is a book to drool over. It consists of page after page of relationships between numbers and events. Owen O'Shea has an amazing ability to identify curious combinations of numbers. To give you some idea of the unusual relationships that he is discovered, here is a list of the chapter titles:
*) Digit curiosities
*) The 9/11 atrocities
*) The professor speaks on the U. S. and Ireland
*) Curiosities in armed conflicts
*) Number and word palindromes
*) The U. S. - Iraq war
*) The number of the beast
*) Curios of the Lusitania and other curious matters
*) Wordplay and other curiosities
*) New coincidences on Lincoln and Kennedy
*) Dart and card curiosities
*) The professor gives some number patterns
*) The King James Bible and some currency conversions
*) The professor at the university
I was amazed at some of the coincidences, wondering how O'Shea managed to find them. It appears that he has a very accurate sense for these relationships, as some are quite obscure. When reading the book, there were few, "Now, why didn't I think of that?" moments. However, there were many times when my thought was, "I would have never thought of that."
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission and this review appears on Amazon.
*) Digit curiosities
*) The 9/11 atrocities
*) The professor speaks on the U. S. and Ireland
*) Curiosities in armed conflicts
*) Number and word palindromes
*) The U. S. - Iraq war
*) The number of the beast
*) Curios of the Lusitania and other curious matters
*) Wordplay and other curiosities
*) New coincidences on Lincoln and Kennedy
*) Dart and card curiosities
*) The professor gives some number patterns
*) The King James Bible and some currency conversions
*) The professor at the university
I was amazed at some of the coincidences, wondering how O'Shea managed to find them. It appears that he has a very accurate sense for these relationships, as some are quite obscure. When reading the book, there were few, "Now, why didn't I think of that?" moments. However, there were many times when my thought was, "I would have never thought of that."
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission and this review appears on Amazon.
Displaying 1 of 1 review