- Even the Securities and Exchange Commission warns against them. See http://
www .sec .gov/ answers/ ponzi .htm. - Carl B. Boyer, A History of Mathematics (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991),
p. 570. - Ibid.
- Ibid.
- See http:// archives .cnn .com/ 2002/ WORLD/ europe/ 04/ 24/ uk .kissinger/.
- L. Wapner, The Pea and the Sun (A Mathematical Paradox) (Wellesley, Mass:
A. K. Peters, 2005). This is a really thorough and readable exposition of all as-
pects of the Banach-Tarski theorem—including an understandable treatment of
the proof—but you’ll still have to be willing to put in the work. Even if you’re not,
there’s still a lot to like. - See http:// mathworld .wolfram .com/ Zermelo -FraenkelAxioms .html. You’ll have
to fight your way through standard set theory notation (which is explained at the
top of the page) in order to understand them, but the axioms themselves are
pretty basic. There is a link and a further explanation for each axiom. Most
mathematicians never really worry about these axioms, as the set theory they
use seems pretty obvious, and are only concerned with finding a useful version
of the axiom of choice (there are others besides the well-ordering principle). The
two industry standard versions that I have found most useful are Zorn’s Lemma
and transfinite induction, and I believe that’s true for the majority of mathema-
ticians. - H. Weyl, The Continuum (New York: Dover, 1994), p. xii. Hermann Weyl was one
of the great intellects of the early portion of the twentieth century. He received
his doctorate from Göttingen; his thesis adviser was David Hilbert. Weyl was an
early proponent of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and studied the application of
group theory to quantum mechanics. - Quoted in N. Rose, Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh N.C.,: Rome
Press, 1988).
The Mea sure of All Things 27