Clifford A. Pickover, a Yale University Ph.D. who has published over thirty books on mathematical thought, cryptology, computers, and science, writes here as the "quirky and legendary Dr. Francis Googol...purportedly a triple-great grandson of Charles Darwin who 'loves numbers'." Dr. Googol takes the reader through 125 detailed and illustrated mathematical ratiocinations divided into four chapters. The book's dedication provides a hint of the arcane but interesting topics to come--the book is dedicated to a six-by-six numerical magic square consisting only of prime numbers whose "magic sum" is 666, the biblical "Number of the Beast." In just one of the 125 sections we learn what are "The 15 Most Famous Transcendental Numbers"...the first one being pi. In another section in the chapter entitled "The Peruvian Collection," we see that Dr. Googol "loves the number three." He points out that Peru is the third largest country in South America, that it is divided into three geographic regions and that agriculture employs one third of its workforce. He then goes on to list many of the unique mathematical aspects of the number three as well as occurences of triplicity in history and mythology. These are just samples of the many delights within. Even math-phobes will be enticed to read their way through the problems and
puzzles here.
More abstracts about the Wonders of Numbers: Adventures in Mathematics, Mind, and Meaning