Numbers Rule
- Synopsis
-
Szpiro (a journalist who also writes a monthly column on mathematics for the Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung) takes the general reader on a tour of the mathematical puzzles and paradoxes inherent in voting systems, such as the Alabama Paradox, in which an increase in the number of seats in the Congress could actually lead to a reduced number of representatives for a state, and the Condorcet Paradox, which demonstrates that the winner of elections featuring more than two candidates does not necessarily reflect majority preferences. Szpiro takes a roughly chronological approach to the topic, travelling from ancient Greece to the present and, in addition to offering explanations of the various mathematical conundrums of elections and voting, also offers biographical details on the mathematicians and other thinkers who thought about them, including Plato, Pliny the Younger, Pierre Simon Laplace, Thomas Jefferson, John von Neumann, and Kenneth Arrow. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
- Copyright:
- 2010
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- Book Size:
- 226 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780691139944
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- Date of Addition:
- 10/01/10
- Copyrighted By:
- Princeton University Press
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
-
English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
-
History,
Nonfiction,
Mathematics and Statistics,
Philosophy,
Politics and Government
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
-
This is a copyrighted book.
