Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt: And Other Intriguing Stories of Mathematical Physics

For the Reader xi Preface xiii Chapter 1: Three Examples of the Mutual Embrace 1 1.1 Unphysical Laws 1 1.2 When Math Goes Wrong 6 1.3 Math from Physics 13 Chapter 2: Measuring Gravity 18 2.1 First, a Little Theory 18 2.2 Out in the Author's Garage 21 Chapter 3: Feynman's Infinite Circuit 24 3.1 An Infinity of Resistors 24 3.2 An Infinity of Reactances, and Recursion 27 3.3 Convergence--or Not? 32 3.4 Three More Infinite, All-Resistor Networks 36 Chapter 4: Air Drag--A Mathematical View 44 4.1 Air Drag Treated Broadly 44 4.2 Air Drag Treated with Some Detail 51 Chapter 5: Air Drag--A Physical View 62 5.1 The Quadratic Force Law 62 5.2 Long Falls through a Real Atmosphere 70 Chapter 6: Really Long Falls 82 6.1 Falling into the Sun 82 6.2 Falling from Heaven to Hell 86 Chapter 7: The Zeta Function--and Physics 94 7.1 A Curious Double Integral 94 7.2 Fourier Series and the Zeta Function 95 7.3 The Zeta Function in Physics 100 Chapter 8: Ballistics--With No Air Drag (Yet) 107 8.1 Shooting a Cannon in a Vacuum 107 8.2 What Makes a Champion Shot-Putter? 112 8.3 Another Cannon Question 116 Chapter 9: Ballistics--With Air Drag 120 9.1 Thin Air Cannot Be Ignored! 120 9.2 Air Drag and Baseball 126 Chapter 10: Gravity and Newton 136 10.1 The Beginnings of Modern Gravity 136 10.2 Newton's Superb Theorems 140 10.3 The Moon Test and Blowing-Up Planets 148 10.4 A Surprising Gravity Calculation 152 10.5 Gravitational Contraction 157 Chapter 11: Gravity Far Above the Earth 170 11.1 Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion 170 11.2 Weighing the Planets 175 Chapter 12: Gravity Inside the Earth 186 12.1 Newton's Experiment 186 12.2 Gravity Inside the Earth 191 12.3 Pressure at the Center of the Earth 200 12.4 Travel Inside the Earth 203 12.5 Epilogue 209 Chapter 13: Quilts & Electricity 215 13.1 Recreational Mathematics 215 13.2 Electric Quilts 220 13.3 Three Impossibility Proofs 225 Chapter 14: Random Walks 233 14.1 Ronald Ross and the Flight of Mosquitoes 233

Paul J. Nahin is the author of many best-selling popular math books, including "Digital Dice, Chases and Escapes, Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula, When Least is Best, Duelling Idiots and Other Probability Puzzlers," and "An Imaginary Tale" (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire.

Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt is a great book for anyone interested in the connections between mathematics and physics. Along the way, Nahin, author of many popular math books, shares many historical anecdotes about the problems and the people who studied them... A teacher of general physics or introductory calculus will find many interesting discussions that can be included in an introductory course. Choice Overall, this book is a really fun read. The combination of mathematics applied to real physics problems and the historical fabric within which they are woven proved a winner for me. I could write more about this volume, but I think I'll quit here--I want to get to work on some of the challenge problems. -- Barry R. Holstein American Journal of Physics This book shows mathematics and physics at their very best, united to explore fascinating phenomena with astonishing results. -- Linda Kallam Mathematics Teacher