Such a work as The Handy Math Answer Bookcould not have been completed without
the help of many generous people. The authors would like to thank Roger Jänecke for
originating the concept for this book; Kevin Hile for his patience, great editorial work,
photo research, and line art design; Christa Gainor for always being there to answer
our questions (and her amazing knowledge of topics); Roger Matuz for his friendly
advice in helping us decide on content; Amy Keyzer and John Krol for proofreading;
Lawrence Baker for the index; Mary Claire Krzewinski for design; Marco Di Vita of the
Graphix Group for typesetting; Marty Connors for giving us the go-ahead for this pro-
ject; and our agent and friend, Agnes Birnbaum, as always, for all her hard work.
Finally, the authors would like to thank the multitude of devoted mathematicians
and those in other fields who use mathematics—past, present, and future. These peo-
ple have, in a direct or indirect way, helped us all better understand our world.
It would also be nice to thank those people who first made up the numbering sys-
tem so long ago, but that might be stretching our thanks a bit too much. After all, we
wouldn’t be using computers or cashing checks without numbers!Acknowledgments
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