Havil, Julian: Impossible? ©2008 Julian Havil, Princeton University Press, NJ Hardcover, w/dj, 235 pages ISBN: 978-0-691-13131-3 ©2011 Paperback edition

Image courtesy Don's Magic and Books

Comments: "Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums." Clever mathematical paradoxes; not all magic, but includes a chapter Two Card Tricks.

Contents (Chapters from book ToC):

xi Acknowledgments
1 Introduction

3 Chapter 1 It’s Common Knowledge
11 Chapter 2 Simpson’s Paradox
21 Chapter 3 The Impossible Problem
31 Chapter 4 Braess’s Paradox
39 Chapter 5 The Power of Complex Numbers
50 Chapter 6 Bucking the Odds
68 Chapter 7 Cantor’s Paradise
82 Chapter 8 Gamow-Stern Elevators
88 Chapter 9 The Toss of a Coin
103 Chapter 10 Wild-Card Poker
113 Chapter 11 Two Series
131 Chapter 12 Two Card Tricks
146 Chapter 13 The Spin of a Needle
165 Chapter 14 The Best Choice
176 Chapter 15 The Power of Powers
190 Chapter 16 Benford’s Law
201 Chapter 17 Goodstein Sequences
210 Chapter 18 The Banach-Tarski Paradox
217 The Motifs
221 Appendix
233 Index