Perplexing Paradoxes

Unraveling Enigmas in the World Around Us
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-0-231-21376-9
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 360 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 146 mm x 220 mm, Gewicht: 608 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Szpiro, George G.

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophische Logik, Argumentationstheorie
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Geschichte der Mathematik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Mathematische Logik
• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Philosophie der Mathematik

Über Autor(innen)

Szpiro, George G.
George Szpiro (Ph.D., mathematical economics and finance, Hebrew University) has for the past thirty years worked as correspondent of the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, which has a readership of 500k. He is the author of Kepler’s Conjecture (John Wiley, 2003), Numbers Rule (Princeton University Press, 2010) and Pricing the Future (Basic Books 2011), among others.

George G. Szpiro is an award-winning author and journalist who was 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 Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty: Three Centuries of Economic Decision-Making (Columbia, 2020). Szpiro was on the faculty at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.