Columbia University Press
Perplexing Paradoxes: Unraveling Enigmas in the World Around Us
Key Metrics
- George G Szpiro
- Columbia University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780231213769
- -
- -
- Mathematics > History & Philosophy
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Why does it always seem like the elevator is going down when you need to go up? Is it really true that 0.99999 . . . with an infinite number of 9s after the decimal point, is equal to 1? What do tea leaves and river erosion have in common, per Albert Einstein? Does seeing a bed of red flowers help prove that all ravens are black? Can we make sense of a phrase like this statement is unprovable?
Exploring these questions and many more, George G. Szpiro guides readers through the puzzling world of paradoxes, from Socratic dialogues to the Monty Hall Problem. Perplexing Paradoxes presents sixty counterintuitive conundrums drawn from diverse areas of thought--not only mathematics, statistics, logic, and philosophy but also social science, physics, politics, and religion. Szpiro offers a brisk history of each paradox, unpacks its inner workings, and considers where one might encounter it in daily life. Ultimately, he argues, paradoxes are not simple brain teasers or abstruse word games--they challenge us to hone our reasoning and become more alert to the flaws in received wisdom and common habits of thought.
Lighthearted, witty, and conversational, Perplexing Paradoxes presents sophisticated material in an accessible way, for all readers interested in the world's boundless possibilities--and impossibilities.
Author Bio
George G Szpiro was born in Vienna, Austria, grew up in Switzerland, and live & work in New York City, Jerusalem, Israel and Villeneuve, Switzerland.
George G. Szpiro is an award-winning author and journalist. A longtime correspondent for the Swiss daily?Neue Zürcher Zeitung, his many books include?Numbers Rule: The Vexing Mathematics of Democracy, from Plato to the Present?(2010) and?Pricing the Future: Finance, Physics, and the 300-Year Journey to the Black-Scholes Equation?(2011).
Books
Kepler’s Conjecture: How Some of the Greatest Minds in History Helped Solve one of the Oldest Math Problems of the World; John Wiley, 2003.
The Secret Life of Numbers: 50 Easy Pieces on How Mathematicians Work and Think; Joseph Henry Press (The National Academy of Sciences), 2006.
Poincaré’s Conjecture: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest Puzzles; Dutton, 2007.
A Mathematical Medley: Fifty easy Pieces on Mathematics; The American Mathematical Association (AMA), 2010
Numbers Rule: The Vexing Mathematics of Democracy, from Plato to the Present; Princeton University Press, 2010.
Pricing the Future: Finance, Physics, and the 300-year Journey to the Black-Scholes Equation; Basic Books 2011
Education
- 1968 - 1972 Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland, MSc mathematics
- 1973 - 1975 Stanford University, MBA
- 1975 - 1984 Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, Ph.D. mathematical economics
- ?
Source: CFA Society New York and
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