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    The Pleasure of Counting

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    Chandan Kumar
    This document is an introduction to the book "The Pleasures of Counting" which covers a wide range of topics related to mathematics and its applications. It contains a table of contents that lists 19 chapters organized into 5 parts covering the uses of abstraction in statistics, measurement, computation algorithms, codebreaking during World War II, and the pleasures of mathematical thought. It also includes 3 appendices with suggestions for further reading, mathematical notations, and sources.

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    The Pleasure of Counting

    Uploaded by

    Chandan Kumar
    147 views4 pages
    This document is an introduction to the book "The Pleasures of Counting" which covers a wide range of topics related to mathematics and its applications. It contains a table of contents that lists 19 chapters organized into 5 parts covering the uses of abstraction in statistics, measurement, computation algorithms, codebreaking during World War II, and the pleasures of mathematical thought. It also includes 3 appendices with suggestions for further reading, mathematical notations, and sources.

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    The pleasure of counting

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    The pleasure of counting

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    This document is an introduction to the book "The Pleasures of Counting" which covers a wide range of topics related to mathematics and its applications. It contains a table of contents that lists 19 chapters organized into 5 parts covering the uses of abstraction in statistics, measurement, computation algorithms, codebreaking during World War II, and the pleasures of mathematical thought. It also includes 3 appendices with suggestions for further reading, mathematical notations, and sources.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    147 views4 pages

    The Pleasure of Counting

    Uploaded by

    Chandan Kumar
    This document is an introduction to the book "The Pleasures of Counting" which covers a wide range of topics related to mathematics and its applications. It contains a table of contents that lists 19 chapters organized into 5 parts covering the uses of abstraction in statistics, measurement, computation algorithms, codebreaking during World War II, and the pleasures of mathematical thought. It also includes 3 appendices with suggestions for further reading, mathematical notations, and sources.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    The

    Pleasures
    of
    Counting

    T. W. KORNER
    Trinity Hall
    Cambridge

    CAMBRIDGE
    UNIVERSITY PRESS
    CONTENTS

    Preface viii

    I The uses of abstraction


    1 Unfeeling statistics 3
    1.1 Snow on cholera 3
    1.2 An altar of pedantry 14
    2 Prelude to a battle 21
    2.1 The first great submarine war 21
    2.2 The coming of convoy 25
    2.3 The second submarine war 32
    3 Blackett 38
    3.1 Blackett at Jutland 38
    3.2 Tizard and radar 44
    3.3 The shortest wavelength will win the war 50
    3.4 Blackett's circus 57
    Aircraft versus submarine 62
    4.1 Twenty-five seconds 62
    4.2 Let's try the slide-rule for a change 73
    4.3 The area rule 79
    4.4 What can we learn? 87
    4.5 Some problems 93

    II Meditations on measurement
    Biology in a darkened room 101
    5.1 Galileo on falling bodies 101
    5.2 The long and the short and the tall 105
    Physics in a darkened room 116
    6.1 The pyramid inch 116
    6.2 A different age 127
    vi Contents

    7 Subtle is the Lord 137


    7.1 Galileo and Einstein 137
    7.2 The Lorentz transformation 141
    7.3 What happened next? 149
    7.4 Does the earth rotate? 154
    8 A Quaker mathematician 159
    8.1 Richardson , 159
    8.2 Richardson's deferred approach to the limit 164
    8.3 Does the wind have a velocity? 176
    8.4 The four-thirds rule 186
    9 Richardson on war 194
    9.1 Arms and insecurity 194
    9.2 Statistics of deadly quarrels 198
    9.3 Richardson on frontiers 208
    9.4 Why does a tree look like a tree? 215

    III The pleasures of computation


    10 Some classic algorithms 231
    10.1 These twice five figures 231
    10.2 The good old days 237
    10.3 Euclid's algorithm 242
    10.4 How to count rabbits 250
    11 Some modern algorithms 258
    11.1 The railroad problem 258
    11.2 Braess's paradox 268
    11.3 Finding the largest 275
    11.4 How fast can we sort? 282
    11.5 A letter of Lord Chesterfield 292
    12 Deeper matters 298
    12.1 How safe? 298
    12.2 The problems of infinity 305
    12.3 Turing's theorem ... 311

    IV Enigma variations
    13 Enigma 319
    13.1 Simple codes 319
    13.2 Simple Enigmas 331
    13.3 The plugboard 338
    Contents vii

    14 The Poles 348


    14.1 The plugboard does not hide all finger-prints 348
    14.2 Beautiful Polish females 353
    14.3 Passing the torch 362
    15 Bletchley 368
    15.1 The Turing bombes 368
    15.2 The bombes at work 377
    15.3 SHARK 381
    16 Echoes 391
    16.1 Hard problems 391
    16.2 Shannon's theorem 398

    V The pleasures of thought


    17 Time and chance 413
    17.1 Why are we not all called Smith? 413
    17.2 Growth and decay 422
    17.3 Species and speculation 433
    17.4 Of microorganisms and men 444
    18 Two mathematics' lessons 452
    18.1 A Greek mathematics lesson 452
    18.2 A modern mathematics lesson I 459
    18.3 A modern mathematics lesson II 464
    18.4 A modern mathematics lesson III 471
    18.5 A modern mathematics lesson IV 477
    18.6 Epilogue 481
    19 Last thoughts 488
    19.1 A mathematical career 488
    19.2 The pleasures of counting 492
    Appendix 1. Further reading 494
    A 1.1 Some interesting books 494
    A 1.2 Some hard but interesting books 501
    Appendix 2. Some notations 508
    Appendix 3. Sources 511
    Bibliography 522
    Index 529
    Acknowledgements 534

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