most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-20T05:13:25Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/user/3292 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/8609/favorite-popular-math-book/11999#11999 Robert 2010-01-16T17:20:42Z 2010-01-16T17:20:42Z

<p>I know this is a little late for Christmas, but nevertheless, I have a few (some of which have already been mentioned) books I've read that I've quite enjoyed. For the sake of brevity, I'll let you search the titles on Amazon for reviews and better descriptions.</p> <p>Title: Everything &amp; More: A Compact History of Infinity Author: David Foster Wallace</p> <p>Title: The Mathematical Experience Author(s): Philip J Davis &amp; Reuben Hersh</p> <p>Title: One, Two, Three...Infinity Author: George Gamow</p> <p>Title: Pi in the Sky Author: John D. Barrow</p> <p>Title: Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics Author: John Derbyshire</p> <p>Title: Strength in Numbers Author: Sherman Stein</p> <p>Title: e: The Story of a Number Author: Eli Maor</p> <p>Title: A History of Pi Author: Petr Beckmann</p> <p>Title: Nature's Numbers Author: Ian Stewart</p> <p>Title: Mathematics: The Science of Patterns Author: Keith Devlin</p> <p>Title: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea Author: Charles Seife</p> <p>Title: How to Enjoy Calculus Author: Eli S. Pine (Not really a "popular" book, per se', but still pretty good)</p> <p>Title: How to Think About Weird Things Author(s): Theodore Schick &amp; Lewis Vaughn (Not really about mathematics, but not so far out of the way that you wouldn't enjoy it if you also enjoy mathematics)</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/11934/magnitude-of-grahams-number/11945#11945 Robert 2010-01-16T01:11:42Z 2010-01-16T01:11:42Z

<p>Thank you, both of you, for taking the time to answer. Both were helpful, and both were appreciated!</p> <p>I downloaded Freidman's "Enormous Integers in Real Life", and am looking through it now. Gerhard, to your point, Friedman says early on, "...that A(5,5) is incomprehensibly large. We propose this number as a sort of benchmark." Can't wait to look through the rest of it!</p> <p>Zev, appreciate the restating of a googolplex in up-arrow notation; wished I'd thought of doing it that way, as it really helps put it in perspective. That a googolplex is so infinitesimal compared to 3^^^3 is...staggering.</p> <p>Thanks!</p>