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Fantasia Mathematica
''Fantasia Mathematica'' is an anthology published in 1958 containing stories, humor, poems, etc., all on mathematical topics, compiled by Clifton Fadiman. A companion volume was published as ''The Mathematical Magpie'' (1962). The volume contains writing by authors including Robert Heinlein, Aldous Huxley, H. G. Wells, and Martin Gardner. Contents *"Introduction" by Clifton Fadiman Odd numbers *"Young Archimedes" by Aldous Huxley *"Pythagoras and the Psychoanalyst" by Arthur Koestler *"Mother and the Decimal Point" by Richard Llewellyn *"Jurgen Proves It by Mathematics" by James Branch Cabell *"Peter Learns Arithmetic" by H. G. Wells *"Socrates and the Slave" by Plato *"The Death of Archimedes" by Karel Čapek Imaginaries *"The Devil and Simon Flagg" by Arthur Porges *" —And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert A. Heinlein *"Inflexible Logic" by Russell Maloney *"No-Sided Professor" by Martin Gardner *" Superiority" by Arthur C. Clarke *"The Mathematical Voodoo" by H. Nea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman (May 15, 1904 – June 20, 1999) was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality. He began his work with the radio, and switched to television later in his career. Background Born in Brooklyn, New York, Fadiman was a nephew of the emigree Ukrainian psychologist Boris Sidis and a first cousin of the child prodigy William James Sidis. Fadiman grew up in Brooklyn. His mother worked as a nurse; his father, Isadore, immigrated from Russian empire in 1892 and worked as a druggist.One of "Kip's" older brothers, Edwin, taught him how to read. Edwin later married Celeste Frankel and became the brother-in-law to Margaret Lefranc (Frankel), who was a future recipient of the Governor's Award for Painting. He attended Columbia College at Columbia University. One of his teachers was lifelong friend Mark Van Doren; his undergraduate contemporaries included Jacques Barzun, Mortimer Adler, Lionel Trilling, Herbert Solow, Arthur F. Bur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karel Čapek
Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel ''War with the Newts'' (1936) and play ''R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal Robots'', 1920), which introduced the word ''robot''.Oxford English Dictionary: robot n2 He also wrote many politically charged works dealing with the social turmoil of his time. Influenced by American pragmatic liberalism, he campaigned in favor of free expression and strongly opposed the rise of both fascism and communism in Europe. Though nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times, Čapek never received it. However, several awards commemorate his name, such as the Karel Čapek Prize, awarded every other year by the Czech PEN Club for literary work that contributes to reinforcing or maintaining democratic and humanist values in society. He also played a key role in establishing the Czechoslovak PEN Club as a part of Internatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tachypomp
"The Tachypomp" is a short story by Edward Page Mitchell originally published January 1874 anonymously in '' The Sun'', a New York City daily newspaper. It was Mitchell's first science-fiction story. Mitchell was known for his editorial work on ''The Sun'', but because his science-fiction stories were published anonymously, his well-regarded work was mostly forgotten until its rediscovery in the early 1970s. "The Tachypomp" is an early use of mathematics as the principal premise of a science-fiction story, and it was one of the first to use the word " android", here used to describe a purely mechanical creature. Publishing information After the original publication in ''The Sun'', the story was reprinted in Clifton Fadiman's '' Fantasia Mathematica'' (1958). In 1973, "The Tachypomp" and other stories were reprinted in ''The Crystal Man: Landmark Science Fiction'', edited by Sam Moskowitz. Plot synopsis The plot revolves around Mr. Furnace’s (the narrator) quest to marry his mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Balchin
Nigel Marlin Balchin (3 December 1908 – 17 May 1970)Peter Rowland, "Balchin, Nigel Marlin (1908–1970)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, accessed 9 December 2008 was an English psychologist and author, particularly known for his novels written during and immediately after World War II: '' Darkness Falls from the Air'', ''The Small Back Room'' and ''Mine Own Executioner''. Life Balchin was born on 3 December 1908 in Potterne, Wiltshire, the third and last child of William Edwin Balchin (1872–1958), a baker and teashop proprietor, later grocer, and Ada (née Curtis), the daughter of a railway guard. His paternal grandfather, George Marlin Balchin (1830–1898), was a farmer of 800 acres from a long line of wealthy Surrey farmers in Milford. George Balchin moved during the 1870s to Reading to become a Storekeeper. but his sudden decision in 1887 to cease work on his farm had a negative impact on the Balchin family's s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Hazlett Upson
William Hazlett Upson (September 6, 1891 – February 5, 1975) was an American author, best remembered for a series of stories featuring Alexander Botts, a salesman for the Earthworm Tractor Company. Early life Born at Glen Ridge, New Jersey on September 6, 1891, Upson was the son of William Ford Upson (1857–1930) and Grace (Hazlett) Upson (1861–1911); his older brother was the aeronautics engineer Ralph Hazlett Upson. He graduated from Glen Ridge High School in 1909. Treasury of Great Children's Books. Accessed October 4, 2018. "William Hazlett Upson (1891-1975) was born at Glen Ridge, New Jersey on September 6, 1891. He graduated from the Glen Ridge High School in 1909." Upson attended |
Moebius Strip
Moebius, Möbius or Mobius may refer to: People * August Ferdinand Möbius (1790–1868), German mathematician and astronomer * Theodor Möbius (1821–1890), German philologist * Karl Möbius (1825–1908), German zoologist and ecologist * Paul Julius Möbius (1853–1907), German neurologist * Dieter Moebius (1944–2015), German/Swiss musician * Mark Mobius (born 1936), emerging markets investments pioneer * Jean Giraud (1938–2012), French comics artist who used the pseudonym Mœbius Fictional characters * Mobius M. Mobius, a character in Marvel Comics * Mobius, also known as the Anti-Monitor, a supervillain in DC Comics Mathematics * Möbius energy, a particular knot energy * Möbius strip, an object with one surface and one edge * Möbius function, an important multiplicative function in number theory and combinatorics ** Möbius transform, transform involving the Möbius function ** Möbius inversion formula, in number theory * Möbius transformation, a particular ration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles J
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English feet, or 1,760 yards. The statute mile was standardised between the British Commonwealth and the United States by an international agreement in 1959, when it was formally redefined with respect to SI units as exactly . With qualifiers, ''mile'' is also used to describe or translate a wide range of units derived from or roughly equivalent to the Roman mile, such as the nautical mile (now exactly), the Italian mile (roughly ), and the Chinese mile (now exactly). The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 Roman feet but the greater importance of furlongs in Elizabethan-era England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to or in 1593. This form of the mile then spread across the British Empire, some successor states of which conti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fredric Brown
Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) was an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer.D. J. McReynolds, "The Short Fiction of Fredric Brown" in Frank N. Magill, (ed.) ''Survey of Science Fiction Literature'', Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1979. (pp. 1954–1957). He is known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the " short short" form—stories of 1 to 3 pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. Humor and a postmodern outlook carried over into his novels as well. One of his stories, "Arena", was adapted to a 1967 episode of the American television series ''Star Trek''. According to his wife, Fredric Brown hated to write. So he did everything he could to avoid it. He'd play his flute, challenge a friend to a game of chess, or tease Ming Tah, his Siamese cat. If Brown had trouble working out a certain story, he would hop on a long bus trip and just sit and think and plot for days on end. When Brown fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homer Nearing
Homer C. Nearing Jr (April 15, 1915 – May 29, 2004) was an American professor and author of mathematically themed short fiction, often under the byline "H. Nearing Jr.". Fiction and poetry Nearing is best known for his humorous ''Professor Cleanth Penn Ransom'' series''Anatomy of Wonder 4: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction'' edited by Neil Barron, R.R. Bowker, 1995, page 181. published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' in the early 1950s, with the protagonist being a surreal head of the mathematics department at Uh-Uh University. One of Nearing's Professor Ransom short stories "The Maladjusted Classroom" was reprinted in the 1954 edition of ''The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction'' while "The Cerebrative Psittacoid" was reprinted in ''Best SF'', edited by Edmund Crispin. His story "The Mathematical Voodoo," about a teacher struggling to teach math to students, was reprinted in ''Fantasia Mathematica'', a 1958 anthology on mathematical topics compiled by Cli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur C
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more widely believed, is that the name is derived from the Roman clan '' Artorius'' who lived in Roman Britain for centuries. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Italian it is Arturo. Etymology The earliest datable attestation of the name Arthur is in the early 9th century Welsh-Latin text ''Historia Brittonum'', where it refers to a circa 5th to 6th-century Briton general who fought against the invading Saxons, and who later gave rise to the famous King Arthur of medieval legend and literature. A possible earlier mention of the same man is to be found in the epic Welsh poem ''Y Gododdin'' by Aneirin, which some scholars assign to the late 6th century, though this is still a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superiority (short Story)
"Superiority" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1951. It depicts an arms race during an interstellar war. It shows the side which is more technologically advanced being defeated, despite its apparent superiority, because of its willingness to discard old technology without having fully perfected the new. Meanwhile, the enemy steadily built up a far larger arsenal of weapons that while more primitive were also more reliable. The story was at one point required reading for an industrial design course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Plot The story is told in the form of a letter of pleading to a court deciding the fate of the former commander of a great allied space fleet. He starts the letter by describing that their final defeat was due not to the inferiority of their forces, but their superiority. When the war opens, the allied forces have a great advantage both in number of spaceships and the power of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Maloney
Russell may refer to: People * Russell (given name) * Russell (surname) * Lady Russell (other) * Lord Russell (other) Places Australia *Russell, Australian Capital Territory *Russell Island, Queensland (other) **Russell Island (Moreton Bay) **Russell Island (Frankland Islands) *Russell Falls, Tasmania *A former name of Westerway, Tasmania Canada *Russell, Ontario, a township in Ontario *Russell, Ontario (community), a town in the township mentioned above. *Russell, Manitoba *Russell Island (Nunavut) New Zealand *Russell, New Zealand, formerly Kororareka *Okiato or Old Russell, the first capital of New Zealand Solomon Islands *Russell Islands United States *Russell, Arkansas *Russell City, California, formerly Russell *Russell, Colorado *Russell, Georgia *Russell, Illinois *Russell, Iowa *Russell, Kansas *Russell, Kentucky, in Greenup County *Russell, Louisville, Kentucky *Russell, Massachusetts, a New England town **Russell (CDP), Massachusetts, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
