The Price of Cake: Clément and Guillaume Deslandes ***

This is a bit of an oddity that is likely to prove Marmite-like in attracting a mix of enthusiasm and dislike - so three stars is something of an average outcome. The authors describe it as 'a compendium of difficult mathematical riddles'. I don't think this is strictly accurate: these aren't riddles in any conventional sense, they are word-based mathematical problems or puzzles, but lack the wordplay that is essential to a riddle.

Which side of the divide you come down on is likely to depend on two factors. Whether you like indulging in mathematical problems, and whether you only like mathematical problems where an intuitive grasp is enough, or whether you enjoy ploughing through mathematical workings to get to the solution. I suspect my use of the word 'ploughing' there highlights that, while I personally do like them, I haven't the patience for problems that take a lot of working through.

For those of us with limited patience, there is a hints section that gives something of a pointer to the way of approaching the problem, before a detailed solutions section (the longest part of the book). It's probably best to give an example. The first 'riddle' says that a blacksmith has five chains, each with three links. He wants to make a chain 15 links long. Given he can open and close links, what is the minimum number he needs to open. The hint tells us that four links is obvious, but is it optimal? And the solution gives the actual answer.

Here the answer is practically one line: this is the kind of intuitive puzzle I find appealing. But with a fair number there was some mathematical working required. The subtitle mentions these are 'classic' riddles - and almost every popular mathematical problem I've come across is in there, from Monty Hall to the seven bridges of Koenigsberg, via plenty of statistical and speed of travel problems, both familiar and novel.

In practice, I did enjoy it rather more than I thought I would, though for me it would have worked better if the solutions had come straight after the relevant problems - I spent most of my time reading a problem, failing to solve it then flipping to the back to read the solution.

Not at all a bad book (though I wish the cover had looked a little less self-published) - but one with a very specific readership. You'll know if it's for you - and if it is, you should get a copy.

Paperback:

Kindle:
Using these links earns us commission at no cost to you
Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

Comments

Target Earth – Govert Schilling *****

I was biased in favour of this great little book even before I started to read it, simply because it’s so short. I’m sure that a lot of people who buy popular science books just want an overview and taster of a subject that’s brand new to them – and that’s likely to work best if the author keeps it short and to the point. Of course, you may want to dig deeper in areas that really interest you, but that’s what Google is for. That basic principle aside, I’m still in awe at how much substance Govert Schilling has managed to cram into this tiny book. It’s essentially about all the things (natural things, I mean, not UFOs or space junk) that can end up on Earth after coming down from outer space. That ranges from the microscopically small particles of cosmic dust that accumulate in our gutters, all the way up to the ten kilometre wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Between these extremes are two topics that we’ve reviewed entire books about recently: meteorites ( The Meteorite Hunt...

The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Henry Gee ****

In his last book, Henry Gee impressed with his A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth - this time he zooms in on one very specific aspect of life on Earth - humans - and gives us not just a history, but a prediction of the future - our extinction. The book starts with an entertaining prologue, to an extent bemoaning our obsession with dinosaurs, a story that leads, inexorably towards extinction. This is a fate, Gee points out, that will occur for every species, including our own. We then cover three potential stages of the rise and fall of humanity (the book's title is purposely modelled on Gibbon) - Rise, Fall and Escape. Gee's speciality is palaeontology and in the first section he takes us back to explore as much as we can know from the extremely patchy fossil record of the origins of the human family, the genus Homo and the eventual dominance of Homo sapiens , pushing out any remaining members of other closely related species. As we move onto the Fall section, Gee gives ...

The New Lunar Society - David Mindell *****

David Mindell's take on learning lessons for the present from the eighteenth century Lunar Society could easily have been a dull academic tome, but instead it was a delight to read. Mindell splits the book into a series of short essay-like chapters which includes details of the characters involved in and impact of the Lunar Society, which effectively kick-started the Industrial Revolution, interwoven with an analysis of the decline of industry in modern twentieth and twenty-first century America, plus the potential for taking a Lunar Society approach to revitalise industry for the future. We see how a group of men (they were all men back then) based in the English Midlands (though with a strong Scottish contingent) brought together science, engineering and artisan skills in a way that made the Industrial Revolution and its (eventual) impact on improving the lot of the masses possible. Interlaced with this, Mindell shows us how 'industrial' has become something of a dirty wo...

Search This Blog