MIT Press
Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy
Key Metrics
- Matt Cook
- MIT Press
- Hardcover
- 9780262043465
- 9.1 X 6 X 1.2 inches
- 1.45 pounds
- Mathematics > History & Philosophy
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn't require tangibles, like rabbits or hats. Paradox works in the abstract, with words and concepts and symbols, to create the illusion of contradiction. There are no contradictions in reality, but there can appear to be. In Sleight of Mind, Matt Cook and a few collaborators dive deeply into more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the social sciences. As each paradox is discussed and resolved, Cook helps readers discover the meaning of knowledge and the proper formation of concepts--and how reason can dispel the illusion of contradiction.
The journey begins with a most ingenious paradox from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance. Readers will then travel from Ancient Greece to cutting-edge laboratories, encounter infinity and its different sizes, and discover mathematical impossibilities inherent in elections. They will tackle conundrums in probability, induction, geometry, and game theory; perform supertasks; build apparent perpetual motion machines; meet twins living in different millennia; explore the strange quantum world--and much more.
Author Bio
MAtt Cook, Ph.D. is an economist, composer, Los Angeles Times bestselling author, and executive film producer based in Los Angeles. He tells stories through writing, music, magic, and numbers.
As an economist, he has worked in entertainment finance and founded a government transparency organization. Drawing from experience in over 130 countries, he enjoys infusing his musical compositions with international intrigue. As a close-up magician trained at the Magic Castle, he has performed in Hollywood and often weaves sleight of hand into his talks and lectures. For his support of the military, he was personally honored by President George W. Bush with the Presidential Call to Service Award.
Matt's thrillers include Sabotage (a Los Angeles Times bestseller) and Good Little Marauder (a historical thriller); his nonfiction includes Sleight of Mind (on paradoxes), The Startup Star, and more. He was educated at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of his creative work, Matt is also a divemaster and pilot of land and sea planes.
Source: MattCook.com
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