The celebrated mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras left no writings. But what if he had and the manuscript had never been found? Where would it be located? Two mathematicians, one American, one British, set out, unbeknownst to each other, to find the missing manuscript.

Though known today primarily for the mathematical theorem that bears his name, Pythagoras was a mystically-minded philosopher with a particular interest in music, astronomy, cosmology, numerology, and the soul. This book paints a vivid picture of the world in which Pythagoras lived—and since the philosopher was so widely travelled that includes Greek, Egyptian, and Babylonian civilization in the sixth century BCE. Along with chapters discussing Pythagoras’s life and beliefs, as well as the lifestyle he advocated, there is a timeline listing important events from his life.

The celebrated mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras left no writings. But what if he had and the manuscript was never found? Where would it be located? And what information would it reveal? These questions are the inspiration for the mathematical mystery novel Pythagoras' Revenge. Suspenseful and instructive, Pythagoras' Revenge weaves fact, fiction, mathematics, computer science, and ancient history into a surprising and sophisticated thriller. The intrigue begins when Jule Davidson, a young American mathematician who trolls the internet for difficult math riddles and stumbles upon a neo-Pythagorean sect searching for the promised reincarnation of Pythagoras. Across the ocean, Elmer Galway, a professor of classical history at Oxford, discovers an Arabic manuscript hinting at the existence of an ancient scroll--possibly left by Pythagoras himself. Unknown to one another, Jule and Elmer each have information that the other requires and, as they race to solve the philosophical and mathematical puzzles set before them, their paths ultimately collide. Set in 1998 with flashbacks to classical Greece, Pythagoras' Revenge investigates the confrontation between opposing views of mathematics and reality, and explores ideas from both early and cutting-edge mathematics. From academic Oxford to suburban Chicago and historic Rome, Pythagoras' Revenge is a sophisticated thriller that will grip readers from beginning to surprising end.

The revolutions that Gregory Chaitin brought within the fields of science are well known. From his discovery of algorithmic information complexity to his work on Gödel's theorem, he has contributed deeply and expansively to such diverse fields.This book attempts to bring together a collection of articles written by his colleagues, collaborators and friends to celebrate his work in a festschrift. It encompasses various aspects of the scientific work that Chaitin has accomplished over the years. Topics range from philosophy to biology, from foundations of mathematics to physics, from logic to computer science, and all other areas Chaitin has worked on.It also includes sketches of his personality with the help of biographical accounts in some unconventional articles that will provide a rare glimpse into the personal life and nature of Chaitin.Compared to the other books that exist along a similar vein, this book stands out primarily due to its highly interdisciplinary nature and its scope that will attract readers into Chaitin's world.

Providing more than 50 fiction display descriptions, this book identifies themes for the entire year and includes titles for signage, annotated book lists, prop and material ideas, as well as photographs that show how to pull it all together. Proper library merchandising doesn't have to be prohibitively expensive, time-consuming, or constitute a huge headache. Ready-Made Book Displays explains the principles behind effective displays and presents a wide variety of ready-made book displays that can be easily replicated, providing catchy titles, materials and props lists, reproducible hand-outs, and photographs to guide librarians in quickly assembling successful displays. These display ideas can be utilized in several different venues—in-shelf, point-of-checkout, display case, and others—and can be targeted to coincide with events, holidays, and celebrations, as well as for general book promotion. Each of the 55 fiction displays includes a prop idea list, a related Dewey subject list, media tie-ins, and an annotated and reproducible booklist. It's everything the busy librarian needs to create appealing, successful book displays—all contained in one handy guidebook.

This collection presents significant contributions from an international network project on mathematical cultures, including essays from leading scholars in the history and philosophy of mathematics and mathematics education.​ Mathematics has universal standards of validity. Nevertheless, there are local styles in mathematical research and teaching, and great variation in the place of mathematics in the larger cultures that mathematical practitioners belong to. The reflections on mathematical cultures collected in this book are of interest to mathematicians, philosophers, historians, sociologists, cognitive scientists and mathematics educators.

The material world is made of atoms, and the majority of chemical elements has two or more stable isotopes. The existence of isotopes and their applications are well known. Yet, there is little appreciation of isotopic diversity as a singular phenomenon of nature. This book discusses aspects of isotopic diversity in terms of a singular principle: "isotopicity".

Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) was an Austrian-American mathematician, who is best known for his incompleteness theorems. He was the greatest mathematical logician of the 20th century, with his contributions extending to Einstein’s general relativity, as he proved that Einstein’s theory allows for time machines. The Gödel incompleteness theorem - the usual formal mathematical systems cannot prove nor disprove all true mathematical sentences - is frequently presented in textbooks as something that happens in the rarefied realms of mathematical logic, and that has nothing to do with the real world. Practice shows the contrary though; one can demonstrate the validity of the phenomenon in various areas, ranging from chaos theory and physics to economics and even ecology. In this lively treatise, based on Chaitin’s groundbreaking work and on the da Costa-Doria results in physics, ecology, economics and computer science, the authors show that the Gödel incompleteness phenomenon can directly bear on the practice of science and perhaps on our everyday life. This accessible book gives a new, detailed and elementary explanation of the Gödel incompleteness theorems and presents the Chaitin results and their relation to the da Costa-Doria results, which are given in full, but with no technicalities. Besides theory, the historical report and personal stories about the main character and on this book’s writing process, make it appealing leisure reading for those interested in mathematics, logic, physics, philosophy and computer sciences. See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REy9noY5Sg8

In Pi (π) in Nature, Art, and Culture Marcel Danesi investigates the manifestations of π in science, nature, symbolism, and culture, arguing that these are intrinsically intertwined.