"Welcome to the maze.A logical maze, a magical maze. A maze of the mind.
The maze is mathematics. The mind is yours. Let's see what happens when we put them together.
What is mathematics? What do mathematicians do?
What is a mathematician? Someone who does mathematics?
Not exactly. That's too easy an answer, and it creates too simple a maze—a circular loop of self-referential logic. No, a mathematician is more than just somebody who does mathematics. Think of it this way: what is a businessperson? Someone who does business? Yes, but not just that. A businessperson is someone who sees an opportunity for doing business where the rest of us see nothing; while we're complaining that there's no restaurant in the area, he or she is organizing a telephone pizza delivery service. Similarly, a mathematician is someone who sees opportunities for doing mathematics that the rest of us miss.
I want to open your mind to some of these opportunities."—from The Magical Maze
Praise for Ian Stewart's Previous Books
About Nature's Numbers: "Stewart achieves what other popular mathematics writers merely strive for: an accurate, informative portrayal of contemporary mathematic...