Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries

by Ian Stewart

Review
Britain's most brilliant and prolific populariser of mathematics (Alex Bellos Guardian)

Ian really is unsurpassed as raconteur of the world of numbers. He guides us on a mind-boggling journey from the ultra trivial to the profound. Thoroughly entertaining (Jeremy Webb New Scientist)

As the professor darts randomly from "digital cubes" to "the hairy ball theorem" with boundless playful curiosity, even those with only a sluggish interest in maths will find something to amuse and amaze (Sunday Telegraph)

Anyone with a slight geeky bent to them, whether they be adult or teenager, will find plenty to edify, tickle and tantalise them. It'd make a wonderful present ... I can't wait for the next volume. Highly recommended (Bookbag)

Book Description
Solving mathematical riddles with the world's most popular maths sleuth.

About the Author
Ian Stewart is Mathematics Professor Emeritus at Warwick University. His many books include Seventeen Equations that Changed the World [9781846685323], Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities [9781846683459], and The Great Mathematical Problems [9781846683374]. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, appears frequently on radio and television, and does research on pattern formation and network dynamics.

Genres: Science, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Puzzles

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 2, 2014

About the author

Ian Nicholas Stewart is an Emeritus Professor and Digital Media Fellow in the Mathematics Department at Warwick University, with special responsibility for public awareness of mathematics and science. He is best known for his popular science writing on mathematical themes.
--from the author's website

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are broadly two audiences for popular maths books - general readers and maths geeks, and a title can appeal to one, or the other, or a bit of both. I struggle with the pure geek books (I'll give you an example of the sort of thing you have to enjoy for me to define you as a maths geek in a moment), but Ian Stewart is capable of writing a book that really does appeal solidly to general reader, as evidenced by his Great Mathematical Problems.

I haven't read (yet) his two previous books in this trilogy, Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities and Hoard of Mathematical Treasures, but my suspicion is that Stewart got through most of the really appealing stuff in those, as at least two thirds of this book fell into the 'geeks only' category. This was a real shame, as the other bits were excellent. I was, admittedly, a bit wary on reading the bumf to discover that Stewart was indulging in some Sherlock Holmes pastiche to frame some of the problems. If there's one thing scientists and mathematicians fall for when they try to do funny, it's whimsy - and it can be horribly painful. All the signs were that this would be the case. Stewart's pair, Soames and Watsup have a landlady called Mrs Soapsuds (why?) - the groans were already pilling up. Yet, surprisingly, what he has produced are very palatable pastiches, full of references to the real thing, yet working surprisingly effectively on their own. Nice one.

The fact remains, though, that there are far too many 'mathematical mysteries' that evoke the response 'So what?' For example:

The cubes of the three consecutive numbers 1, 2, 3 are 1, 8, 27, which add up to 36, a perfect square. What are the next three consecutive cubes whose sum is a square?

Sorry, I neither know nor care - and though I've given a very short example, some of the longer entries are this kind of mathematical trivia that will only turn on the über-mathers.

So near, but so far. The good bits are five star greats. I loved, for instance, the Soames and Watsup puzzle requiring you to change the pattern of 8 glasses with only two moves. (Partly, admittedly, because I saw the answer straight away.) In fact the best bits do tend to be logical or lateral thinking problems. I will have to check out the two earlier books to see if the ratio of interest is similar, but for me, in this particular title, there are just too many items that don't raise more than a passing eyebrow.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty and engrossing. And childish - mustn't forget childish.

A great mix of Holmesian pastiche along with accessible and stretching puzzles.

[~maheen~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book for a curious soul.

Soft and humorous so as not to terrify the fellow non enthusiasts of maths ;)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The maths stuff was interesting (although I'd already read about a few of them in other popular maths books, as well as the book on Paul Erdös, but I didn't know about the theorem that he talks about). The Sherlock Holmes parodies were funny, not having read any of the books but being familiar with the BBC Sherlock series and having watched about half of the Jeremy Brett box set. It also puts an interesting spin on the Reichenbach Fall, making Watson (sorry, Watsup) even more clueless than usual.

I didn't get even half of the puzzles, but then I'm not very good at most logic puzzles (except for sudoku, etc). Although one of them was because I misinterpreted one of the conditions, but on reflection I think that it was probably my fault.

So as a maths book it's about as good as any other (the sections dealing with maths are probably shorter than in most books), but the Sherlock elements make it fairly unique to the genre. I guess that's either going to make it better or worse for you, but it's different.

[David Whittlestone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Afraid I gave up about 25% in.

There are too many books left in this world for me to read to bother spending time reading this one. I am, or was, a mathematician and I thought this might be a bit of light relief. But I fear it was not. It was contrived and rather dull. The fascinating findings were rather convoluted realisations and not really noteworthy. I have not read the first of Stewart's books of similar title, but have to think it was better than this as he published 2 more.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not as much fun as its predecessors.

Maybe the problems were just a bit out of reach, or the writing wasn't as interesting.
Perhaps Hemlock Shoames wasn't very much fun, I just felt...let down by this one.

I hope he keeps writing more, I know I need a few more math jokes for my students, but this one just felt...meh.

[Kaia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure wish I would have had a Professor Stewart when I was taking classes in Calculus, Algebra and Finance! I laughed at some of the chapters and actually learned a few things, even though most of the equations were beyond my comprehension level. It is a fun and interesting read for all math levels.

[Claire]

One of the first big statistics questions had false conclusions in the solution. So I was ticked off and stopped reading. And I really thought I'd enjoy this too! Bummed.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really in the target audience for this, but it was quite fun anyway.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries" by Ian Stewart is a collection of mathematical puzzles and problems. Here and there are the quirky math joke and odd math facts. Interspersed is a fun Sherlock-Holmes-and-Dr-Watson parody. Quite a few of the problems were of the unknown-unknown variety: both the math itself was new to me (one of the unknowns) and the solution not so easily understood (the other unknown.) Other problems, though, were relatively more straight forward.

[Ray Savarda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of mathematical curiosities, but this time with a Sherlock-holmes takeoff set of storylines embedded every few "normal" stories.
It was OK, not that much a fan of the holmes-like diversion.

[Jaro M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book as it shows some interesting math concepts. For example:Aristotle's derivation of sphere volume, optimal rower's position in a boat and several others.

There were also 2 stories, 2 jokes and 5 exercises that my 7&9 yo children enjoyed.

[James Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of mathematical curiosities plus the dectective Soaked and sidekick Watsup at 222b Baker Street (across the road from the famous dectective) who solve maths puzzles very fun :-)

[Bert B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

From funny facts and stories over cool interesting insights to level 99 hi tech top math.
Wow!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

brain hurts

[Sylwia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taka książka nie na jeden raz. Zostanie ze mną na dłużej.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mixture of top quality puzzles and very interesting mathematics. First class.

[andrew]

fun, but i found typos in the 123456789 times X series (:<

[Kerszi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Szczerze to ciężko się to czyta, poza ciekawostkami matematycznymi zagadki detektywistyczne jakoś mi nie pasują, można to przeczytać, ale snobistyczny język "Szerlocka" mnie drażni. Sam nie wiem jak to skwalifikować. Jest tu dużo ciekawych rzeczy typu sudoku, liczby pierwsze, ogromne liczby, które robią wrażenie, ale niektóre rozdziały czyta się na siłę. Pozycja będzie dobra dla tych którzy jednak bardziej lubią matematykę, skomplikowane wzory i rozwiązywać zadania. Dla tych szukających nowinek matematycznych do końca może się nie spodobać.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ed eccoci arrivati al terzo volume della raccolta di curiosità matematiche raccolte da Ian Stewart, dopo Cabinet e Hoard (spero mi perdoniate per non aver scritto i nomi completi). I lettori più attenti avranno notato che mentre i primi due volumi sono stati pubblicati a un anno di distanza l'uno dall'altro, per questo ci sono voluti quattro anni: immagino che i suoi appunti originali fossero terminati, e Stewart sia dovuto andare in giro a cercare cose nuove.
Devo dire che quest'attesa non è stata vana. Vabbè, c'è l'irrefrenabile bisogno di Stewart di fare giochi di parole: questa volta ha scelto di presentare alcuni problemi come casi polizieschi condotti da un'improbabile coppia vittoriana abitante in Baker Street al 222B, di fronte a quella ben più famosa Holmes/Watson - in questo caso abbiamo Helmock Soames e Dr John Whatsup (colui che ha creato la famosissima frase "what's up, Doc?"). Però ci sono anche interessanti curiosità matematiche scoperte in questi ultimissimi anni e che a volte mi erano sfuggite. Lo sapevate che dopo il tassellamento di Penrose si è riusciti a migliorare e ottenere una singola tessera che riempie il piano in modo non ripetitivo? e che esiste un ricoprimento a forma di spirale? Io no :-) Ci sono poi notizie che finalmente permetteranno di capire l'utilità della matematica, come la spiegazione del perché in una Guinness le bollicine di schiuma si vedono scendere e non salire. Insomma, uno di quei compendi che non possono mancare nella formazione di un matematico né in quella di un non-matematico.

[Wiedźma · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Księga matematycznych tajemnic" to pokaźny zbiór zagadek logicznych i matematycznych. Lecz to nie wszystko. Pomiędzy poszczególnymi tajemnicami czytelnik poznaje sprawy, które prowadzą brytyjski detektyw Hemlock Soames i jego pomocnik John Watsup. Tak, tak, podobieństwo do słynnych mieszkańców Baker Street 221B jest jak najbardziej zamierzone. Bowiem złożyło się tak, że mieszkają oni po drugiej stronie ulicy, pod numerem 222B, i zajmują się zagadkami, które odrzucił lub z którymi nie mógł sobie poradzić Sherlock Holmes. Co prawda nie przeczytacie o takowych w powieściach sir Conan Doyle’a, lecz ich tytuły są nader sugestywne: Znak jednego czy Pies na drakule. Wszystkie te fragmenty są w gruncie rzeczy kolejnymi zagadkami, rozwiązania których można podjąć się samodzielnie, gdyż wszystkie znane szczegóły sprawy zostały w nich opisane. Oczywiście, nic się nie dzieje jeśli nie uda się dojść do rozwiązania samodzielnie – na końcu książki znajdują się rozwiązania wszystkich zadań umieszczonych w publikacji.

Więcej na: http://wiedzma-czyta.blogspot.com/201...

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eminently putdownable... 25 pages was enough to persuade me that mathematical "mysteries" in the guise of poorly written Sherlock Holmes pastiche just aren't my cup of tea.

So that's that little mystery tied up nice and quickly!

[Slickmez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as it's two predecessors...