Number theory in science and communication. With applications in cryptography, physics, digital information, computing, and self-similarity.

This book illustrates the application of number theory to practical problems in physics, digital information processing, computing, cryptography, acoustics, crystallography (quasicrystals), fractals and self-similarity. It widens the horizon of readers with a minimum of mathematical training to the basic facts of number theory. The topics are treated informally, stressing intuition rather than formal proofs. The second edition includes much new material on self-similarity, fractals, quasicrystals, Cantor sets, Hausdorff dimensions, deterministic chaos, error-free computation, spread-spectrum communication systems, optimal ambiguity functions for radar and sonar, and Fibonacci numbers. From the reviews: ..."A lighthearted and readable volume with a wide range of applications to which the author has been a productive contributor - useful mathematics given outside the formalities of theorem and proof"...