To Mock a Mockingbird

To Mock a Mockingbird

infobox Book |
name = To Mock a Mockingbird and Other Logic Puzzles: Including an Amazing Adventure in Combinatory Logic


image_caption = Cover art for "To Mock a Mockingbird"
author = Raymond Smullyan
illustrator =
country = United States
language = English
publisher = Knopf
release_date = 1985
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 256
isbn = ISBN 0-19-280142-2

"To Mock a Mockingbird and Other Logic Puzzles: Including an Amazing Adventure in Combinatory Logic" (1985, ISBN 0-19-280142-2) is a book by the mathematician and logician Raymond Smullyan. It contains many nontrivial recreational puzzles of the sort for which Smullyan is well-known. It is also a gentle and humorous introduction to combinatory logic and the associated metamathematics, built on an elaborate ornithological metaphor.

Combinatory logic, functionally equivalent to the lambda calculus, is a branch of symbolic logic having the expressive power of set theory, and with deep connections to questions of computability and provability. Smullyan's exposition takes the form of an imaginary account of two men going into a forest and discussing the unusual "birds" (combinators) they find there. Each species of bird in Smullyan's forest stands for a particular kind of combinator appearing in the conventional treatment of combinatory logic. Each bird has a distinctive call, which it emits when it hears the call of another bird. Hence an initial call by certain "birds" gives rise to a cascading sequence of calls by a succession of birds. (Bird watching was a hobby of the inventor of combinatory logic, Haskell Curry.)

Deep inside the forest dwells the Mockingbird, which echoes back the bird calls it hears. The resulting cascade of calls and responses analogizes to abstract models of computing. With this analogy in hand, one can explore advanced topics in the mathematical theory of computability, such as Church-Turing Computability and Gödel's Theorem.

See also

* combinatory logic
* SKI combinator calculus
* B,C,K,W system
* Fixed point combinator
* Lambda calculus
* puzzle
* logic
* logic puzzles
* mathematics
* brain teasers
* paradoxes

External links

* Keenan, Davd C. (2001) " [http://users.bigpond.net.au/d.keenan/Lambda/index.htm To Dissect a Mockingbird.] "
* Rathman, Chris, " [http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/cus/combinator/birds.html Combinator Birds.] "


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • mockingbird — (n.) also mocking bird, 1670s, from mocking (adj.), 1520s, from prp. of MOCK (Cf. mock) (v.) + BIRD (Cf. bird) (n.1). Earlier form was mock bird (1640s) …   Etymology dictionary

  • mock|er — «MOK uhr, MK », noun. 1. a person who mocks. 2. = mockingbird. (Cf. ↑mockingbird) …   Useful english dictionary

  • mock|ing|bird — «MOK ihng BURD, MK », noun. 1. a grayish songbird, especially of southern North America, and Central and South America, that imitates the notes of other birds. It belongs to the same family as the catbird. »The mockingbird, whose song once… …   Useful english dictionary

  • mockingbird — mock|ing|bird [ˈmɔkıŋbə:d US ˈma:kıŋbə:rd] n an American bird that copies the songs of other birds …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • mockingbird — mock|ing|bird [ makıŋ ,bɜrd ] noun count a small white and gray North American bird that copies the songs of other birds …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • mockingbird — mock•ing•bird [[t]ˈmɒk ɪŋˌbɜrd[/t]] n. orn any of several New World songbirds of the family Mimidae that appropriate the calls of other bird species, esp. Mimus polyglottos, of the U.S. and Mexico, having gray, white, and black plumage •… …   From formal English to slang

  • mock — {{11}}mock (adj.) 1540s, from MOCK (Cf. mock), verb and noun. Mock heroic is attested from 1711; mock turtle calf s head dressed to resemble a turtle, is from 1763; as a kind of soup from 1783. {{12}}mock (n.) derisive action or speech, early 15c …   Etymology dictionary

  • To Kill a Mockingbird — For the film based on the novel, see To Kill a Mockingbird (film). To Kill a Mockingbird …   Wikipedia

  • List of To Kill a Mockingbird characters — To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1960 novel by American Author Harper Lee. It is often considered a great work of American literature, and is widely read in high school English and literature classes. The novel is set in the fictional Maycomb County,… …   Wikipedia

  • List of characters in To Kill a Mockingbird — This is a list of characters from the successful 1960 novel (or 1962 film) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.Novel used in many English studies widely knownPrimary CharactersAtticus FinchScout and Jem s father. He is not troubled by the fact… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”