Wonders of Numbers: Adventures in Math, Mind, and Meaning by Clifford
Pickover, Oxford University Press, $25, ISBN 0195133420
HOW do you entertain yourself on a slow weekend afternoon? Watch golf on TV,
or try to figure out the 100-billionth digit of &pgr;? If the second option appeals,
then Clifford Pickover’s new book is for you.
You don’t have to be a professional mathematician to be a fan of numbers and
subjectively constructed lists. As Pickover points out, amateurs still make a
big contribution to the area of numerical ephemera. Nearly all the items in
Wonders of Numbers can be appreciated with…
