Mathematician Rob Eastaway's book 'Much Ado About Numbers' delves into the mathematical aspects of Shakespeare's life and works. The book presents several puzzles inspired by Shakespeare's plays and the mathematical concepts of his time. One of the puzzles challenges readers to express the number of hours in a week using only 15 letters. Another puzzle explores the probabilities in the gambling game Hazard, asking which total is more likely: nine and ten or twelve when three dice are thrown. Additionally, the book features a puzzle involving the measurements of distance used by Shakespeare, such as mile, league, fathom, and furlong, and asks readers to list them in order of size. Lastly, the book poses a puzzle related to non-identical twins in Shakespeare's play 'Twelfth Night,' where a farmer observes a pregnant sheep and wonders if it is true that at least one of the lambs will be male, leading to the question of whether the other lamb will most likely be female. The answers to these puzzles can be found in Eastaway's book.
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