The Professor in Owen O'Shea's book is the imaginary American Richard Stein. As Owen O'Shea and the Professor travel through Ireland, O'Shea notes the Professor's collection of amazing magic numbers in fascinating detail. His mathematical curiosities are wide ranging, concerning the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania to coincidences about Apollo 11 to the first moon walk to new numerical curiosities. The new curiosities, among many others, center on Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy; the USA and Ireland; the two World Wars; the King James Version of the Bible, and James Joyce. The Number of the Beast, 666, is discussed as well, as are many new equations involving that famous number - all appearing here for the first time. And for those fascinated by games and gambling, a number of curious proposition bets involving dice, darts, and playing cards, and various mathematical puzzles are scattered throughout this singularly entertaining book.

The Magic Numbers of the Professor (Spectrum)

Science & Math

O’Shea, Owen

Dudley, Underwood

Mathematics

American Mathematical Society

From Bullets to Ballots: Politics and Electioneering in Post-Civil WarCounty Kerry, 1923–33

History

Europe

University College Dublin Press

This sampler of entertaining mathematical diversions reveals the elegance and extraordinary usefulness of mathematics for readers who think they have no aptitude for the subject. If you like any kind of game at all, you'll enjoy the amazing mathematical puzzles and patterns presented here in straightforward terms that any layperson can understand. From magic squares and the mysterious qualities of prime numbers to Pythagorean triples, probability theory, the Fibonacci sequence, and more, the author shows that math can be fun while having some profound implications. Such ubiquitous mathematical entities as pi and the Fibonacci numbers are found throughout the natural world and are also the foundation of our technological civilization. By exploring the intriguing games presented here, you'll come away with a greater appreciation for the beauty and importance of these and many more math concepts.This is the perfect book for people who were turned off by math in school but now as adults wonder what they may have missed.

Call of the Primes: Surprising Patterns, Peculiar Puzzles, and Other Marvels of Mathematics

Humor & Entertainment

Puzzles & Games

Prometheus

If you like any kind of game at all, you'll enjoy the amazing mathematical brainteasers in this entertaining book. No special mathematics training is needed. With an emphasis on puzzling word problems with surprising solutions, the author presents his mathematical hurdles in order of increasing difficulty. Many appear deceptively simple, such as- How many quarter-inch marks are on an unusual sixteen-inch ruler? Or- If the cost of a bottle and a cork is $1.10 and the bottle costs $1.00 more than the cork, how much did the bottle alone cost? Check the answers before you decide that these are too easy. You may be surprised. Novices may want to begin with some of the teasers in the first "easy" section. More experienced math-heads may want to test their wits with the "challenging" or even the "difficult" sections (some are fiendishly difficult). Including word problems by famed mathematical puzzle geniuses Sam Loyd (1841 - 1911) and Henry Ernest Dudeney (1857 - 1930), which have entertained recreational math aficionados for more than a century, this book has something for puzzle solvers at any level. And for the math phobic, it may whet your appetite to delve into a subject you thought could only be boring.

Mathematical Brainteasers with Surprising Solutions

In the modern world the theory of probability is used extensively in mathematics, science, engineering, medicine and, of course, gambling. A proposition bet is one that involves the use of probability -both estimated and actual -where an individual makes an apparently attractive bet to someone who is easily deceived by the odds, which are at first glance in his favor. The Book of Proposition Bets gathers together, and reveals the true mathematics behind, over 50 classic and original proposition bets. From the famous Three Card Monty (really an exercise in the Monty Hall Paradox), to probabilities based on rolling dice and pulling playing cards, or whether or not a mark can guess 3 correct digits of a one dollar bills serial number (spoiler: the odds are against it), author Owen OShea here compiles a fascinating and engaging survey of prop bets. In addition, Part 2 of the book contains a brief history of the theory of probability and some examples of cons and scams perpetrated on the general public to this day around the world, (plus a few more mathematical proposition bets!). Whether to learn the intricacies used by hustlers, or borrow a couple of tricks for yourself, we wager that there is a high probability that readers will enjoy this entertaining and illuminating book!

The Book of Proposition Bets: Using Mathematics to Reveal the Odds of Friendly (and Not-So-Friendly) Wagers

Featuring surprising trivia gems alongside serious questions like why there is something rather than nothing, readers will be enriched by this exploration of remarkable number coincidences and the mathematics that make them possible - and probable.

The Call of Coincidence: Mathematical Gems, Peculiar Patterns, and More Stories of Numerical Serendipity

<div>A Century of Politics draws on new archive material, original research, and interviews to reveal some of the most exciting and dramatic episodes from political life in the Kingdom over the past century. Featuring tales of alleged extra-marital affairs, punch-ups in the Dáil restaurant, election-campaign shenanigans, and the pioneering figures who made their mark on the national stage, it charts the highs and lows of Kerry politics. Published to coincide with the centenary of the First Dáil, the book also features for the first time ever comprehensive biographical details of every Kerry Teachta Dála and senator since 1919, as well as all Kerry ministers and ministers of State. It includes details of every election result in Kerry since 1899, and profiles MPs who represented Kerry in the years before the Dáil was founded.</div>

A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium

Revington, Gordon

Merrion Press

Review\n'Colourful details help to lift Owen O’Shea’s reconstruction of the Ballymacandy gunfight well above your average local history ... O’Shea does a fine job of uncovering the story’s lesser-known tangents ... Meticulously researched and soberly written.' —Sunday Business Post\n'This is local history at its best: clearly written and cliché free, painstakingly researched, a useful index, a really clear map, interesting photos and placing the ambush in the context of Irish history at the time and its aftermath.' —Books Ireland\nOn 1 June 1921, at the height of Ireland’s War of Independence, a cycling patrol of members of the RIC was ambushed by members of the IRA at Ballymacandy, between Milltown and Castlemaine in County Kerry. After an hour of fighting, four police officers lay dead and another died a day later, among them a father of nine children. 
The group of IRA assailants included some of the most high-profile figures in Ireland’s ‘Tan War,’ men like Dan Keating, Jack Flynn, Dan Mulvihill, Billy Myles, and Johnny Connor, but also lesser-known figures, including members of the local Cumann na mBan. Their actions were condemned from the pulpit and an official enquiry tried to discredit the local doctor who tended to the dying men. 
This book comes on the centenary of an ambush that continues to resonate in its community and in a county in which the battle with Crown forces was more virulent and violent than most. Drawing on newly published witness statements and previously unpublished official records, Ballymacandy details what happened to the five men who died and those who led the attack against them, and sets the incident against the backdrop of the wider revolutionary struggle in the county.

Ballymacandy: The Story of a Kerry Ambush

No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry

The violence and divisions caused by the Civil War in County Kerry in 1922-23 were more vicious, bitter, and protracted than anywhere else in Ireland. For generations, the fratricide, murder, and executions in Kerry have been synonymous with the worst excesses of the brutality and mayhem which followed the split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. In this new analysis of the conflict in his native county, Owen O’Shea offers new insights into the misery and mayhem, from the perspectives of combatants as well as their families and the wider civilian population. Based on newly researched archive accounts and testimonies, the immense trauma, hardship, poverty, ill health, and psychological scars of the families of those killed and injured is explored for the first time. Also presented is a catalogue of the intimidation, destruction, crime, and lawlessness which severely affected civilians who had no involvement in the war but suffered greatly, sometimes losing their lives. No Middle Path offers an engrossing account of the terrible events in Kerry and of some of the darkest days in Irish history as well as their shocking and enduring legacy.

The violence and divisions caused by the Civil War in County Kerry in 1922-23 were more vicious, bitter, and protracted than anywhere else in Ireland. For generations, the fratricide, murder, and executions in Kerry have been synonymous with the worst excesses of the brutality and mayhem which followed the split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. In this new analysis of the conflict in his native county, Owen O'Shea offers new insights into the misery and mayhem, from the perspectives of combatants as well as their families and the wider civilian population. Based on newly researched archive accounts and testimonies, the immense trauma, hardship, poverty, ill health, and psychological scars of the families of those killed and injured is explored for the first time. Also presented is a catalogue of the intimidation, destruction, crime, and lawlessness which severely affected civilians who had no involvement in the war but suffered greatly, sometimes losing their lives. No Middle Path offers an engrossing account of the terrible events in Kerry and of some of the darkest days in Irish history as well as their shocking and enduring legacy.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O’Shea, Owen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by O’Shea, Owen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O’Shea, Owen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Magic Numbers of the Professor (Spectrum)

From Bullets to Ballots: Politics and Electioneering in Post-Civil WarCounty Kerry, 1923–33

Call of the Primes: Surprising Patterns, Peculiar Puzzles, and Other Marvels of Mathematics

Mathematical Brainteasers with Surprising Solutions

The Book of Proposition Bets: Using Mathematics to Reveal the Odds of Friendly (and Not-So-Friendly) Wagers

The Call of Coincidence: Mathematical Gems, Peculiar Patterns, and More Stories of Numerical Serendipity

A Century of Politics in the Kingdom: A County Kerry Compendium

Ballymacandy: The Story of a Kerry Ambush

No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry

No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry