A Mathematical Nature Walk Paperback - 2011

"Finally a book that shows the general reader how mathematics can explain the natural phenomena that we continuously encounter but rarely understand. John Adam answers questions about nature's secrets--many of which we haven't even thought to ask. This is a delightful book."--Alfred S. Posamentier, coauthor of The Fabulous Fibonacci Numbers

"John Adam's A Mathematical Nature Walk is a true gem of popular scientific writing. He adroitly does what all good science writers should do: he inspires readers first to observe and then to analyze the world outside their windows."--Raymond Lee, author of The Rainbow Bridge

"With a mathematician's eye and a playful wit, John Adam takes a walk through the woods and returns with stories aplenty! His narratives are about nature and how things work, about looking analytically at the world around us, and about the art of creating mathematical models. For anyone with a mathematical bent who has ever asked 'what is that?, ' this book will provide an interesting read and a valuable resource."--Kenneth G. Libbrecht, author of The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty

"Do not miss this memorable walk with John Adam, filled with delightful surprises that bring together nature, mathematics, and the infectious pleasure of thought, culminating in a special kind of wonder."--Peter Pesic, author of Sky in a Bottle

"For generations, field guides to plants and animals have sharpened the pleasure of seeing by opening our minds to understanding. Now John Adam has filled a gap in that venerable genre with his painstaking but simple mathematical descriptions of familiar, mundane physical phenomena. This is nothing less than a mathematical field guide to inanimate nature."--Hans Christian von Baeyer, author of Information: The New Language of Science

"When you see a spider's web bedecked with morning dew like strings of pearls or the lazy bends in a distant river valley, you are seeing mathematics as well as beauty. You will find equations in A Mathematical Nature Walk for the evanescent colors of the sky--as well as for why you can't fly over a rainbow. John Adam can help you see a world of algebra in a drop of water, and a Fibonacci sequence in a wild flower."--Neil Downie, author of Vacuum Bazookas, Electric Rainbow Jelly, and 27 Other Saturday Science Projects

"John Adam presents a wonderful set of mathematical inquiries into a broad range of natural phenomena. This rich book will be interesting to mathematically minded readers who are inspired by nature."--Will Wilson, Duke University

"In A Mathematical Nature Walk, John Adam encourages readers to explore everyday observations of the natural world from a mathematical point of view. The problems are presented in an engaging style and most of the mathematics is well within the grasp of beginning college students."--Brian Sleeman, University of Leeds