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Customer Reviews (9)

The perpetual idea machine operates at full efficiency
In this book, Clifford Pickover once again verifies a statement that I used many years ago to describe him, "A perpetual idea machine, Clifford Pickover is one of the most creative, original thinkers in the world today." The Mobius strip is an extremely simple device, yet the analysis of it leads to an enormous variety of complexity. It is nothing more that a continuous strip of paper with a half-twist in it. There is only one side and it is used for everything from an amusement to a model for the fundamental shape and structure of the universe.
Pickover covers this wide spectrum as well as some historical background on the inventor; German mathematician Dr. August Mobius, a student of Gauss who lived in the middle 1800's. This was a nice inclusion, as the history of the principal creators of mathematics is often overlooked. An historical oddity that Pickover also brings up is that it is somewhat surprising that this simple device was not invented until the 1800's. Given the incredible simplicity, it is indeed odd that no one had ever considered it until then.
Once again at his best, Pickover follows a trail that only he seems capable of blazing. His writings are entertaining, profound and illuminate an area of mathematics in a manner that non-mathematicians can follow, appreciate and understand.

The Mobius Strip
Clifford Pickover's "The Mobius Strip" is a great book with easy to understand explanations of the one sided Mobius Strip and other fascinating mathematical and scientific matters. Once I began reading it, I could not put it down. I know next to nothing of math or science, but this book helped me understand concepts and facts most people don't know. It was a very enjoyable read, and I learned a lot from it. I say everyone should read this book. It will open your eyes to awesome possibilities and fascinating facts and trivia. There's nothing really I can say about this book except it's a tremendously fun, informative, intelligent, excellent read. A++++!

"The book of nature is written in mathematics."Galileo
If the book of nature is written in mathematics, then the works of Clifford Pickover can safely be said to be a great Cliff's Notes version!

In all his work, Pickover has a genuine gift for making the abstract accessible and meaningful like here where he discusses perhaps the most famous creation of August Mobius:the Mobius strip.

To make one is very easy:1)cut out a piece of paper in the shape of a ruler, 2)take one edge of the paper, turn it 180 degrees and 3) join it with the other end of the paper.

As a result of this operation, you will have created a circular looking object with a kink in the middle.That kink does something fascinating:it makes it so that if you trace your finger along the surface of the object, you will find that it only has one side!

As paradigm defying as this may seem, it litterally opens the door to interesting discussions about the various topologies (or surface formations) an object can assume.It begins a discussion of different dimensions and the exotic mathematics that describe them.

Filled with easy to follow discussion and lots of pictures, Pickover takes great pains to make sure he never leaves any readers behind.

This book is great and those who really enjoyed would be well advised to also read Pickover's Surfing Through Hyperspace and also his Time:A traveler's guide.

It's more than a concept: it offers up new methods of thinking and discussions here include related shapes and ideas as well.
The mobius strip - a continuous loop with only one side and one edge - was popularized by the illustrations of M.C. Escher, yet few know of its history and the evolution of its concept. Drive Clifford Pickover here provides a lively survey of the strip from the mid-1800s when Drive Mobius described it, to its influence in the fields of math, science, engineering, and the arts. It's more than a concept: it offers up new methods of thinking and discussions here include related shapes and ideas as well.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

John - A Twisted Space Enthusiast
WoW! Another great book by Clifford Pickover. Math buffs and recreationists alike will love this book. This is a readable, non-technical tour de force of the Mobius band and its ubiquitous presence. Don't be fooled by my "non-technical". The concepts covered here will stretch the mind of most anyone not already thoroughly immersed in rubber geometry. The strip wends its one-sided way through knots, magic tricks, toys and games, hyperspace, art, architecture and even literature.

My only plea would be to have some of the illustrations in colour.

Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
August Mobius was one of the 19th century's most influential mathematicians and astronomers.Written by six distinguished contributors, this book explores the work of Mobius and his brilliant German contemporaries.The work emphasizes those achievements which in many ways can be seen to reflect the exciting advances taking place at the time throughout the entire scientific world. The background to Mobius's life and labors is provided by John Fauvel.Gert Schubring examines the mathematical community in 19th-century Germany, while Allan Chapman describes the revolution in astronomy that took place during the period. Jeremy Gray analyzes Mobius's contribution to geometrical mechanics and Norman Biggs traces his role in the development of topological ideas. Finally, Ian Stewart explores the legacy Mobius left to mathematics in our own century.This stimulating volume will appeal to all scientists in the fields that Mobius helped advance--physics, mathematics, and astronomy--as well as general readers interested in the history of science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting stories about Mobius and science of 19th century
I got to know many things about Mobius and his works from this book. For example, what cause him to think about the famous Mobius function and Mobius inversion formula. Also, there are facts that support J.B.Listing(1808-1882) as the first inventor of the Mobius Band. In the firsthalf of 19-th century, many leading mathematicians made a living asastronomers, because mathematics at that time had not been accepted as anindependent scientific field! ... Read more

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This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1902 edition by Carl Marhold, Halle. ... Read more

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This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1907 edition by Carl Marhold, Halle. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the text that can both be accessed online and used to create new print copies. This book and thousands of others can be found in the digital collections of the University of Michigan Library. The University Library also understands and values the utility of print, and makes reprints available through its Scholarly Publishing Office. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Mathematics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 534 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Explores the functions of math in daily life, as well as its role as a tool for measurement, data analysis, and technological development. This illustrated set also explains basic concepts of math and geometry, and provides information on historical milestones, notable mathematicians, and today's career choices. ... Read more