The

collection at

Term 4 2014

What is the

collection?

A collection in the North Sydney Boys High School library with mathematical themes. Books marked (*) may be challenging but that might make them more interesting for you!

Look for the purple 𝝅𝝅 sticker on the spine.

Science fiction

Puzzles and problems

Detective fiction

Philosophy

Popular culture

Science and technology

Art and architecture

People who do maths

History, Geography and Society

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Mathematics extension and enrichment

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The NSBHS 𝝅𝝅 Collection : 2014 Term 4

Curators: Nordin Zuber, Joy Henderson, Jenny Fenney Images and some book summaries may be copyrighted.

Science fiction The Cold Equations Tom Godwin

A pilot is on an emergency mission to a planet whose colony is doomed if he doesn't get there. He has just enough fuel to reach the planet - then he finds he has a stowaway, a young girl wanting to be with her brother on the colony. If the pilot jettisons her through the airlock, the ship will barely make it to a landing on the planet. If he does not, the ship will crash and both of them as well as the colony will die. What will he do?

Factoring Humanity Robert J. Sawyer In the near future, a signal is detected coming from the Alpha Centauri system. Heather Davis has devoted her career to deciphering the message.When Heather achieves a breakthrough, the message reveals a startling new technology that rips the barriers of space and time, holding the promise of a new stage of human evolution.

Fantasia Mathematica Clifton Fadiman A classic collection of mathematical stories, essays and anecdotes. Ranging from the poignant to the comical via the simply surreal, these selections include writing by Aldous Huxley, Martin Gardner, H.G. Wells, George Gamow, G.H. Hardy, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and many others. Humorous, mysterious, and always entertaining, this collection is sure to bring a smile to the faces of mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike.

The Foundation Novels What if human society could be explained by mathematics? What if a (very complicated) equation could predict the future? What if all went terribly wrong? Foundation Isaac Asimov For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.

Foundation and Empire Isaac Asimov

Second Foundation Isaac Asimov

Mr Zuber: “My all time favourite book when I was a 13 year old nerd”.

The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy series A comic adventure through time and space. Science fiction humour filled with hilarious jokes which are even funnier for the mathematically aware. Looks out for wonderfully ridiculous logic of the Improbability Drive, and of course – the “answer to the meaning of life” is …. (I won’t spoil it!) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams On 12 October 1979 the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor (and Earth) was made available to humanity – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass and his best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. At this moment, they’re hurtling through space with nothing but their towels and an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big, friendly words: DON’T PANIC. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Life, the Universe and Everything So Long and Thanks for the Fish Mostly Harmless Douglas Adams Of Time and Stars Arthur C. Clarke A collection of classic short stories including the amazing “Nine Billion Names of God” and the story that formed the basis of the greatest science fiction ever made “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Little Brother Cory Doctorow

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang

What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if we could divide by zero? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time?

Einstein’s Dreams Alan Lightman

Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity,, Einstein imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar

Contact

Carl Sagan At first it seemed impossible - a radio signal that came not from Earth but from far beyond the nearest stars. But then the signal was translated, and what had been impossible became terrifying. For the signal contains the information to build a Machine that can travel to the stars. A Machine that can take a human to meet those that sent the message. They are eager to meet us: they have been watching and waiting for a long time.

Detective fiction The Oxford Murders Guillermo Martinez

Two mathematicians must join forces to stop a serial killer in this spellbinding international bestseller. It begins on a summer day in Oxford, when a young Argentine graduate student finds his landlady - an elderly woman who helped crack the Enigma Code during World War II - murdered in cold blood. Meanwhile, a renowned Oxford logician receives an anonymous note bearing a circle and the words "the first of a series." As the murders begin to pile up and more symbols are revealed, it is up to this unlikely pair to decipher the pattern before the killer strikes again.

The Three Body Problem : A Cambridge Mystery

Catherine Shaw Cambridge, 1888. Miss Vanessa Duncan is a young schoolmistress recently arrived from the countryside. She loves teaching and finds the world of academia fascinating; everything is going so well. But everything changes when a Fellow of Mathematics, Mr. Akers, is found dead in his room from a violent blow to the head. Vanessa learns of Sir Isaac Newton’s yet unsolved ‘n-body problem’, which Mr. Akers might have been trying to solve to win the prestigious prize.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon This is Christopher's murder mystery story. There are also no lies in this story because Christopher can't tell lies. Christopher does not like strangers or the colours yellow or brown or being touched. On the other hand, he knows all the countries in the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7507. When Christopher decides to find out who killed the neighbour's dog, his mystery story becomes more complicated than he could have ever predicted. Chasing Vermeer Hardcover Blue Balliet When a book of unexplainable occurences brings Petra & Calder together, strange things start to happen: seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, & an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the centre of an international art scandal. As Petra & Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth they must draw on their powers of intuition, their skills at problem solving, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled?. Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession Apostolos Doxiadis. Petros Papachristos devotes the early part of his life trying to prove one of the greatest mathematical challenges of all time: Goldbach's Conjecture, the deceptively simple claim that every even number greater than two is the sum of two primes. Decades later, his ambitious young nephew drives the defeated mathematician back into the hunt to prove Goldbach's Conjecture. . . but at the cost of the old man's sanity, and perhaps even his life.

The Weaver Fish Robert Edeson

Cambridge linguist Edvard Tøssentern, presumed dead, reappears after a balloon crash. When he staggers in from a remote swamp, gravely ill and swollen beyond recognition, his colleagues at the research station are overjoyed. But Edvard’s discovery about a rare giant bird throws them all into the path of an international crime ring. The Weaver Fish is a gripping adventure story set on the island nation of Ferendes in the South China Sea.

The Parrot’s Theorem Denis Guedj

Mr. Ruche, a Parisian bookseller, receives a bequest from a long lost friend in the Amazon of a vast library of math books, which propels him into a great exploration of the story of mathematics. Meanwhile Max, whose family lives with Mr. Ruche, takes in a voluble parrot who will discuss math with anyone. When Mr. Ruche learns of his friend's mysterious death in a Brazilian rainforest, he decides that with the parrot's help he will use these books to teach Max and his brother and sister the mysteries of Euclid's Elements, Pythagoras's Theorem and the countless other mathematical wonders Pythagorean Crimes Tefcros Michaelides Athens, 1929. Stefanos Kantartzis is found murdered, and Michael Igerinos, his best friend of 30 years, is being questioned by the police as the last person to see him alive. At the root of this historically based work of fiction lies the question as to whether the solution to a mathematical problem could inspire such passion, so intense and perilous, as to drive someone to murder.

People who do maths Born on a Blue Day Daniel Tammet

'I was born on 31 January 1979 - a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number nine or the sound of loud voices arguing.‘ Daniel Tammet sees numbers as shapes, colours, textures and motions, and can learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in three days. He also has a compulsive need for order and routine. He eats exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast and cannot leave the house without counting the number of items of clothing he's wearing. If he gets stressed or unhappy he closes his eyes and counts.

Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality (*) Edward Frenkel

What if you had to take an art class in which you were only taught how to paint a fence? What if you were never shown the paintings of van Gogh and Picasso, weren’t even told they existed? Alas, this is how math is taught, and so for most of us it becomes the intellectual equivalent of watching paint dry. In Love and Math, renowned mathematician Edward Frenkel reveals a side of math we’ve never seen, suffused with all the beauty and elegance of a work of art.

In Code

David Flannery & Sarah Flannery In January 1999, Sarah Flannery, a sports-loving teenager from Blarney in County Cork, Ireland, was awarded Ireland's Young Scientist of the Year for her extraordinary research and discoveries in Internet cryptography. Just sixteen, she was a mathematician with an international reputation. This is her story.

Letters to a Young Mathematician Ian Stewart

Mathematician Ian Stewart tells readers what he wishes he had known when he was a student. He takes up subjects ranging from the philosophical to the practical-what mathematics is and why it's worth doing, the relationship between logic and proof, the role of beauty in mathematical thinking, the future of mathematics, how to deal with the peculiarities of the mathematical community, and many others.

Struck by genius : how a brain injury made me a mathematical marvel. Jason Padgett & Maureen Ann Seaberg

Jason was an ordinary, not terribly bright, 41-year-old working in his father's furniture shop when he was the victim of a brutal mugging outside a karaoke bar in 2002. Jason withdrew from life completely, living as a hermit for four years suffering with agrophobia and the onset of OCD. During this time he developed a fascination with the principles of the physical universe, devouring mathematics and physics journals. He also started to see intricate webs of shapes in his head and discovered that he could draw these by hand.

The French Mathematician Tom Petsinis.

A novel about the extraordinary life of the 19th century French mathematician Evariste Galois, a prodigy who made fundamental discoveries at the age of 18, was imprisoned for his republican beliefs at 19, and who died at 20 in a mysterious early morning duel

Popular culture The Numbers Behind Numb3rs

Keith Devlin Using the popular CBS prime-time TV crime series Numb3rs as a springboard, Keith Devlin and Gary Lorden (the principal math advisor to Numb3rs) explain real-life mathematical techniques used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to catch and convict criminals. From forensics to counterterrorism, the Riemann hypothesis to image enhancement, solving murders to beating casinos, Devlin and Lorden present compelling cases that illustrate how advanced mathematics can be used in state-of-the-art criminal investigations.

The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets

Simon Singh. You may have watched hundreds of episodes of The Simpsons without ever realizing that cleverly embedded in many plots are subtle references to mathematics, ranging from well-known equations to cutting-edge theorems and conjectures. While recounting memorable episodes such as “Bart the Genius” and “Homer3,” Singh weaves in mathematical stories that explore everything from p to Mersenne primes, Euler’s equation to the unsolved riddle of P v. NP; from perfect numbers to narcissistic numbers, infinity to even bigger infinities, and much more.

Science and technology Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics Robyn Arianrhod.

Imagine you are fluent in a magical language of prophecy, a language so powerful it can accurately describe things you cannot see or even imagine. Blending science, history, and biography, this remarkable book reveals the mysteries of mathematics, focusing on the life and work of three of Albert Einstein's heroes: Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and especially James Clerk Maxwell, whose work directly inspired the theory of relativity.

The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity (*) Pedro G. Ferreira

Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement in modern physics. From the moment Einstein first proposed the theory in 1915, it was received with enthusiasm yet also with tremendous resistance, and for the following ninety years was the source of a series of feuds, vendettas, ideological battles and international collaborations featuring a colourful cast of characters.

Chaos : making a new science James Gleick

A popular introduction to Chaos Theory, one of the most significant waves of scientific knowledge in our time. From Edward Lorenz's discovery of the Butterfly Effect to Benoit Mandelbrot's concept of fractals, which created a new geometry of nature, Gleick makes the story of chaos theory not only fascinating but also accessible to beginners, and opens our eyes to a surprising new view of the universe.

Philosophy A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel Gaurav Suri

While taking a class on infinity at Stanford in the late 1980s, Ravi Kapoor discovers that he is confronting the same mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician grandfather had faced many decades earlier-and that had landed him in jail. As grandfather and grandson struggle with the question of whether there can ever be absolute certainty in mathematics or life, they are forced to reconsider their fundamental beliefs and choices.

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

Apostolos Doxiadis , Christos H. Papadimitriou An innovative, dramatic graphic novel about the treacherous pursuit of the foundations of mathematics. This exceptional graphic novel recounts the odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his search for absolute truth, Russell crosses paths with legendary thinkers like Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, and Kurt Gödel, and finds a passionate student in the great Ludwig Wittgenstein. But his most ambitious goal—to establish unshakable logical foundations of mathematics— continues to loom before him.

The Black Swan Nassim Taleb

A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences. In this groundbreaking and prophetic book, Taleb shows in a playful way that Black Swan events explain almost everything about our world, and yet we - especially the experts - are blind to them.

A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines Janna Levin

Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems sent shivers through Vienna’s intellectual circles and directly challenged Ludwig Wittgenstein’s dominant philosophy. Alan Turing’s mathematical genius helped him break the Nazi Enigma Code during WWII. Though they never met, their lives strangely mirrored one another—both were brilliant, and both met with tragic ends. Here, a mysterious narrator intertwines these parallel lives into a double helix of genius and anguish, wonderfully capturing not only two radiant, fragile minds but also the zeitgeist of the era.

The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry Mario Livio.

The story behind the mathematicians who developed Group Theory – a language to describe symmetry.

Art and architecture Mathematical Excursions to the World's Great Buildings Alexander J. Hahn

From the pyramids and the Parthenon to the Sydney Opera House and the Bilbao Guggenheim, this book takes readers on an eye-opening tour of the mathematics behind some of the world's most spectacular buildings. Beautifully illustrated, the book explores the milestones in elementary mathematics that enliven the understanding of these buildings and combines this with an in-depth look at their aesthetics, history, and structure. We will be adding significantly to the Art section in 2015.

History, Geography and Society The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century David Salsburg.

At a summer tea party in Cambridge, England, a guest states that tea poured into milk tastes different from milk poured into tea. Her notion is shouted down by the scientific minds of the group. But one man, Ronald Fisher, proposes to scientifically test the hypothesis. There is no better person to conduct such an experiment, for Fisher is a pioneer in the field of statistics.

The Tiger That Isn’t

Andrew Dilnot & Michael Blastland Politicians and journalists use numbers all the time to bamboozle us. By using a few really simple principles one can quickly see when maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks - or create policies - which can waste millions of pounds. It is liberating to understand when numbers are telling the truth or being used to lie, whether it is health scares, the costs of government policies, the supposed risks of certain activities or the real burden of taxes.

The Code Book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking Simon Singh

An astonishing story of puzzles, codes, languages and riddles that reveals man’s continual pursuit to disguise and uncover, and to work out the secret languages of others. The betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots and the cracking of the enigma code that helped the Allies in World War II are major episodes in a continuing history of cryptography. Simon Singh also investigates other codes, the unravelling of genes and the rediscovery of ancient languages and most tantalisingly, the Beale ciphers, an unbroken code that could hold the key to a $20 million treasure.

Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann

Late in the eighteenth century, two young Germans set out to measure the world. One of them, the aristocratic naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, negotiates jungles, voyages down the Orinoco River, tastes poisons, climbs the highest mountain known to man, counts head lice, and explores and measures every cave and hill he comes across. The other, the reclusive and barely socialized mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, can prove that space is curved without leaving his home.

The Great Arc John Keay

A vivid description of one of the most ambitious scientific projects in the 19th century: the measurement of the Himalayas and the mapping of the Indian subcontinent by William Lambton and George Everest. It faced horrendous technical difficulties, jungles, tigers, and mountains and took over 50 years. But the scientific results were commensurate, including the discovery of the world’s highest peaks and a new calculation of the curvature of the earth’s surface.

Seduced by Logic Robyn Arianrhod

Newton's Principia changed forever humanity's understanding of its place in the universe. But it was feisty French aristocratic Émilie du Châtelet who played a key role in bring Newton's revolutionary opus to a Continental audience. Emilie personified the exciting mix of science, literature, politics and philosophy that defined the Enlightenment. A century later, Mary Somerville taught herself mathematics and rose from genteel poverty to become a world authority on Newtonian physics. Mary and Émilie bring to life a defining period in science and politics, revealing the intimate links between the unfolding Newtonian revolution and the origins of intellectual and political liberty.

Puzzles and problems The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations Boris A. Kordemsky

The best and most popular puzzle book ever published in the Soviet Union. A marvelously varied assortment of brainteasers ranging from simple "catch" riddles to difficult problems (none, however, requiring advanced mathematics). Often the puzzles are presented in the form of charming stories that provide non-Russian readers with valuable insights into contemporary Russian life and customs. Lavishly illustrated with over 400 clear diagrams and amusing sketches.

The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems Martin Gardner

For more than twenty-five years, Martin Gardner was Scientific American's renowned provocateur of popular math. Loyal readers would savour the wit and elegance of his explorations in physics, probability, topology, and chess, among others. Grouped by subject and arrayed from easiest to hardest, the puzzles gathered here have been selected by Gardner for their illuminating; and often bewildering; solutions

How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method G. Polya & John H. Conway.

In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be “reasoned” out—from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Polya’s deft— indeed, brilliant—instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of the problem.

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Mathematics extension and enrichment Thinking in Numbers Daniel Tammet.

In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes, everyday examples, and ruminations on history, literature, and more, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions, and equations underpin all our lives.

Fermat’s Last Theorem Simon Singh

‘I have a truly marvellous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.’ It was with these words, written in the 1630s, that Pierre de Fermat intrigued and infuriated the mathematics community. For over 350 years, proving Fermat’s Last Theorem was the most notorious unsolved mathematical problem, a puzzle whose basics most children could grasp but whose solution eluded the greatest minds in the world. In 1993, after years of secret toil, Andrew Wiles announced to an astounded audience that he had cracked Fermat’s Last Theorem. He had no idea of the nightmare that lay ahead.

The Joy of x

Steven Strogatz Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, insight, and brilliant illustrations.

Here’s Looking at Euclid Alex Bellos

Uncover fascinating stories of mathematical achievement, from the breakthroughs of Euclid, the greatest mathematician of all time, to the creations of the Zen master of origami, one of the hottest areas of mathematical work today.

Adam Spencer’s Big Book of Numbers Adam Spencer

Why do people get freaked out by Friday the 13th? Where does a ‘dozen’ come from? Who was Erno Rubik? And how do you become a master at Sudoku? In 100 bite-sized chapters, mathematician, broadcaster and comedian Adam Spencer unlocks more of the secrets of the world of numbers.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884

satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "A Square", Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. The novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions, for which the novella is still popular amongst mathematics, physics, and computer science students

Alex's Adventures in Numberland Alex Bellos

Alex travels across the globe and meets the world's fastest mental calculators in Germany and a startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan. Packed with fascinating, eye-opening anecdotes, an exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs that will leave you awestruck.

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The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics Clifford Pickover

Beginning millions of years ago with ancient “ant odometers” and moving through time to our modern-day quest for new dimensions, prolific polymath Clifford Pickover covers 250 milestones in mathematical history. Among the numerous concepts readers will encounter: cicada-generated prime numbers, magic squares, and the butterfly effect. Each topic is presented in a lavishly illustrated spread, including formulas and real-world applications of the theorems.

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure Hans Magnus Enzensberger.

In twelve dreams, Robert, a boy who hates math, meets a Number Devil, who leads him to discover the amazing world of numbers: infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, numbers that magically appear in triangles, and numbers that expand without

The Grapes of Math: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life Alex Bellos

Get hooked on math as Alex delves deep into humankind’s turbulent relationship with numbers, and reveals how they have shaped the world we live in.

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A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form Paul Lockhart

A brilliant research mathematician who has devoted his career to teaching kids reveals math to be creative and beautiful and rejects standard anxiety-producing teaching methods. Witty and accessible, Paul Lockhart’s controversial approach will provoke spirited debate among educators and parents alike and it will alter the way we think about math forever.

Measurement (*) Paul Lockhart

Here Lockhart offers the positive side of the math education story by showing us how math should be done. Favouring plain English and pictures over jargon and formulas, he succeeds in making complex ideas about the mathematics of shape and motion intuitive and graspable. His elegant discussion of mathematical reasoning and themes in classical geometry offers proof of his conviction that mathematics illuminates art as much as science. Mr Zuber’s favourite math book of 2014.

The Colossal Book of Mathematics Martin Gardner

Whether discussing hexaflexagons or number theory, Klein bottles or the essence of "nothing," Martin Gardner has single-handedly created the field of "recreational mathematics." The Colossal Book of Mathematics collects together Gardner's most popular pieces from his legendary "Mathematical Games" column, which ran in Scientific American for twenty-five years.

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1089 and all that David Acheson

David Acheson takes us on a thrilling journey to some deep mathematical ideas. On the way, via Kepler and Newton, he explains what calculus really means, gives a brief history of pi, and even takes us to chaos theory and imaginary numbers. Packed with puzzles and illustrated by world famous cartoonists, this is one of the most readable and imaginative books on mathematics ever written.

The Number Mysteries Marcus du Sautoy

Want to win $1,000,000? A short, lively book on five mathematical problems that just refuse be solved – and on how many everyday problems can be solved by maths. Every time we download a song from iTunes, take a flight across the Atlantic or talk on our mobile phones, we are relying on great mathematical inventions. Marcus du Sautoy explains how to fake a Jackson Pollock; how to work out whether or not the universe has a hole in the middle of it; how to make the world's roundest football and how to see shapes in four dimensions

What do you think of these books?

Are there any you would highly recommend? Or any you think we should remove from the collection? Please give your feedback to your mathematics teacher or to Mrs Henderson in the library. Or: Visit www.goodreads.com and add your reviews and comments to the “The Pi Collection” list.