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Contents of the July/August 1996 issue of Quantum

Feature articles

A Venusian Mystery

by Vladimir Surdin

Funny thing about Venus—it doesn’t rotate in the same direction as, say, Earth or Mars. It rotates “backwards.” And scientists still haven’t quite figured out why.

Infinite Descent

by Lev Kurlyandchik and Grigory Rozenblume

A brief display of the power of this technique (a close relative of mathematical induction).

The Power of the Sun and You

by V. Lange and T. Lange

We all know that the Sun puts out a lot of power. But when it comes to power per unit mass, who wins—our local star or our Quantum reader?

Spinning Gold from Straw

by S. Artyomov, Y. Gimatov, and V. Fyodorov

Mathematical logic turns two secrets into one certainty. A mathematician tells one colleague the sum of two numbers, another colleague the product of the same two numbers. How did the colleagues manage to discover the numbers after the seemingly pointless conversation recorded in the article?

Departments

Kaleidoscope: What’s the Best Answer?

Problems where you don’t just want to get the right answer, but the one with the witty twist.

At the Blackboard: While the Water Evaporates …

by Mikhail Anfimov and Alexey Chernoutsan

An attempt to calculate the rate of evaporation on the basis of a thought experiment.

Math Investigations: Finding the Family Resemblance

by George Berzsenyi

A call for help in categorizing so-called “integer representation problems.”

Physics Contest: Boing, Boing, Boing …

by Arthur Eisenkraft and Larry D. Kirkpatrick

What happens to a bouncing ball after the second bounce on an inclined plane, and the third, and the fourth . . .

Follow-up: Dragon the Omnipresent

Another look at the “dragon curves” (creatures found by Chandler and Knuth) introduced to Quantum readers in the September/October 1995 issue.

In the Lab: Osmosis the Magnificent

by Norayr Paravyan

A home-made osmometer and a question of strength—and endurance.

Toy Store: The World Puzzle Championship

by Vladimir Dubrovsky

A report on the 1995 convocation in Romania and problems from Brno (1993) and Brasov (1995).

How Do You Figure?: Challenges in Physics and Math

Brainteasers: Just for the Fun of It!

Check out this sample!

Happenings

Crisscross Science

Scientific crossword puzzle.

Answers, Hints & Solutions

Index (1995–96)

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