Benjamin Franklin's Numbers: An Unsung Mathematical Odyssey

Science News,  Jan 19, 2008  

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S NUMBERS: An Unsung Mathematical Odyssey

PAUL C. PASLES

If Ben Franklin were alive today, he might be a Silicon Valley guru, or even a presidential candidate, but he would certainly be a Sudoku expert. Franklin cultivated a passion for complex forerunners of Sudoku called magic squares--tables of numbers where columns, rows, and diagonals all add up to the same sum--and he himself invented similar musings. But Pasles, a mathematics professor, reminds us that Franklin also delved into more serious mathematical ideas. He wrote on such topics as utility functions, a now-foundational notion in economics, and population growth. He helped establish the idea that populations tend to grow exponentially and predicted, correctly, that the population of the American colonies would outstrip England's within a few generations. Pasles writes that he set out to dispel a widely held myth that Franklin was good at pretty much everything but math. Princeton Univ. Press, 2007, 254 p., color and b&w illus., hardcover, $26.95.

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