phlogiston theory, 32
photoelectric effect, 45, 48–49
photon density, 145–46
photon detectors, 50 –51
photons, 49, 142
physics, 31–39, 134–36
approximation, reliance on math-
ematics and necessity of, 149–50
battling theories in, 38
the continuum and, 25–26
difference between mathematical
and physical theories, 33–35
limitations of, 37, 151
overlapping theories, 34–35
quantum mechanics, see quantum
mechanics
reality checks for, 31–33, 34
Standard Model, see Standard Model
statistical tests in, 38
see also individual theories and
problems
Pi (film), 173
pi π, 173–74.175
transcendality of, 74–75, 116, 173
plague in Athens, 68–69
Planck, Max, 45, 46, 49, 63, 147
planetary motion, Kepler’s laws of, 76
Plan of Scientific Studies Necessary for
the Reorganization of Society
(Comte), 30
Plato, 13, 69, 70
Plato’s machine, 70
Playfair, John, 103
Playfair’s Axiom, 103, 106
Pluto, orbit of, 180
Podolsky, Boris, 61, 62
Poincaré, Henri, 238
Poincaré conjecture, 238
point, definition of a, 102
“point at infinity, a,” 104
Politzer, David, 148
Pollock, Jackson, 32
polygons, 71
construction of regular, 71–72, 73,
7 4, 75–76, 95
polynomial equations, 82–99
“depressed cubic,” 83–88, 89
general cubic, 82, 83, 89
history of search for solutions to
equations of degree four or less, 8,
82 –89
linear equations, early solutions to,
82–83
new directions in quest for solutions
to, 98–99
quadratic equations, 83
quintic, see quintic, solution of the
sextic, 97
transforming the general quartic
equation to a cubic, 88
polynomials, 36–37
proof of the Abel-Ruffini theorem on
the roots of, 73
polynomial-time algorithm, 163–64,
165, 166, 167, 240 – 41
Ponzi, Charles, 16, 17
Ponzi schemes, 16–18
positive integers, 15, 83
Peano’s axioms for, 120 –22, 123, 130,
240
the set of, 15–16
positivism, 30
positron, 135–36, 147
Post, Emil, 119, 123
powered f light, 30
predatory-prey populations, interplay
between, 180–82
“Predictability: Does the Flap of a
Butterf ly’s Wings in Brazil Set off
a Tornado in Texas?”, 180Index 259