For instructors of liberal arts mathematics classes who focus on problem-solving, Harold Jacobs's remarkable textbook has long been the answer, helping teachers connect with of math-anxious students. Drawing on over thirty years of classroom experience, Jacobs shows students how to make observations, discover relationships, and solve problems in the context of ordinary experience.
For instructors of liberal arts mathematics classes who focus on problem-solving, Harold Jacobs's remarkable textbook has long been the answer, helping teachers connect with of math-anxious students. Drawing on over thirty years of classroom experience, Jacobs shows students how to make observations, discover relationships, and solve problems in the context of ordinary experience.
"The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.
Harold Jacobs’s Geometry created a revolution in the approach to teaching this subject, one that gave rise to many ideas now seen in the NCTM Standards. Since its publication nearly one million students have used this legendary text. Suitable for either classroom use or self-paced study, it uses innovative discussions, cartoons, anecdotes, examples, and exercises that unfailingly capture and hold student interest. This edition is the Jacobs for a new generation. It has all the features that have kept the text in class by itself for nearly 3 decades, all in a thoroughly revised, full-color presentation that shows today’s students how fun geometry can be. The text remains proof-based although the presentation is in the less formal paragraph format. The approach focuses on guided discovery to help students develop geometric intuition.
This book provides an exciting history of the discovery of Ramsey Theory, and contains new research along with rare photographs of the mathematicians who developed this theory, including Paul Erdös, B.L. van der Waerden, and Henry Baudet.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the classroom to the courtroom and from financial markets to supermarkets, an intriguing and illuminating look at how randomness, chance, and probability affect our daily lives that will intrigue, awe, and inspire. “Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists.... The result is a readable crash course in randomness.” —The New York Times Book Review With the born storyteller's command of narrative and imaginative approach, Leonard Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how our lives are profoundly informed by chance and randomness and how everything from wine ratings and corporate success to school grades and political polls are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives us the tools we need to make more informed decisions. From the classroom to the courtroom and from financial markets to supermarkets, Mlodinow's intriguing and illuminating look at how randomness, chance, and probability affect our daily lives will intrigue, awe, and inspire.
From rocket scientists to code breakers, “fascinating stories” of women who overcame obstacles, shattered stereotypes, and pursued their passion for math (Notices of the American Mathematical Society). With more than 200 photos and original interviews with several of the amazing women covered, Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics is a full-color volume that puts a spotlight on the influence of women on the development of mathematics over the last two millennia. Each biography reveals the life of a different female mathematician, from her childhood and early influences to the challenges she faced and the great achievements she made in spite of them. Learn how: After her father terminated her math lessons, Sofia Kovalevskaya snuck algebra books into her bed to read at night Emmy Noether became an invaluable resource to Albert Einstein while she was in the Navy Native American rocket scientist Mary Golda Ross developed designs for fighter jets and missiles in a top-secret unit Katherine Johnson’s life-or-death calculations at NASA meant that astronauts such as Alan Shepard and John Glenn made it home alive Shakuntala Devi multiplied massive numbers in her head so her family could eat at night Pamela Harris proved her school counselors wrong when they told her she would only succeed as a bilinguial secretary Carla Cotwright-Williams began her life in the dangerous streets of South-Central Los Angeles before skyrocketing to a powerful career with the Department of Defense in Washington, DC These women are a diverse group, but their stories have one thing in common: At some point on their journeys, someone believed in them—and made them think the impossible was perhaps not so impossible. “A quick read . . . full of dramatic stories and eye-catching illustrations.” —MAA Reviews “I found myself marveling at the personal anecdotes and quotes throughout the book.” —Notices of the American Mathematical Society
A Most Fascinating Journey! It has long been recognized that there are only three major areas of human endeavor which produce prodigies: music, chess and mathematics. This does not occur by happenstance. There are links on many levels. Now, for the first time, Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa examines the yet unexplored relation of chess to music. Mathematics is a main common denominator, a fact that is highlighted accordingly. The thesis of this extraordinarily researched book is that chess is art in itself. It can create art and is strongly related to mathematics and music. As becomes clear, this relationship has already been introduced by some legendary players such as Mikhail Tal and Vladimir Kramnik . Great artists such as John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Arnold Schönberg, to name but a few, have also been fascinated by the very same idea. Surprisingly, this has not been explored in detail so far – only some sporadic articles exist, by authors specializing in either music or chess. There are chapters that address issues which are specialized in chess and music, while others cover related issues of general, social and artistic nature. Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa can be appreciated by readers who have a good, general, though non-specific background, in both fields. That is, no technical knowledge of music is required, with the only prerequisite to fully appreciate the text being the understanding of standard chess rules. The text could be equally enlightening to students of music or mathematics, as an added intellectual insight into these two disciplines. The text is supplemented by many chess diagrams, charts, and over 50 full-color images. So, turn on the music, set up chessboard, get out the calculator and let the author take you on a most fascinating journey that is Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa.
An insightful reflection on the mathematical soul What do pure mathematicians do, and why do they do it? Looking beyond the conventional answers—for the sake of truth, beauty, and practical applications—this book offers an eclectic panorama of the lives and values and hopes and fears of mathematicians in the twenty-first century, assembling material from a startlingly diverse assortment of scholarly, journalistic, and pop culture sources. Drawing on his personal experiences and obsessions as well as the thoughts and opinions of mathematicians from Archimedes and Omar Khayyám to such contemporary giants as Alexander Grothendieck and Robert Langlands, Michael Harris reveals the charisma and romance of mathematics as well as its darker side. In this portrait of mathematics as a community united around a set of common intellectual, ethical, and existential challenges, he touches on a wide variety of questions, such as: Are mathematicians to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? How can we talk about the ideas we were born too soon to understand? And how should you react if you are asked to explain number theory at a dinner party? Disarmingly candid, relentlessly intelligent, and richly entertaining, Mathematics without Apologies takes readers on an unapologetic guided tour of the mathematical life, from the philosophy and sociology of mathematics to its reflections in film and popular music, with detours through the mathematical and mystical traditions of Russia, India, medieval Islam, the Bronx, and beyond.
