This single-volume compilation of 2 books explores the construction of geometric proofs. It offers useful criteria for determining correctness and presents examples of faulty proofs that illustrate common errors. 1963 editions.
This volume completes the English adaptation of a classical Russian textbook in elementary Euclidean geometry. The 1st volume subtitled "Book I. Planimetry" was published in 2006 (ISBN 0977985202). This 2nd volume (Book II. Stereometry) covers solid geometry, and contains a chapter on vectors, foundations, and introduction in non-Euclidean geometry added by the translator. The book intended for high-school and college students, and their teachers. Includes 317 exercises, index, and bibliography.
This geometry workbook includes: 64 proofs with full solutions, 9 examples to help serve as a guide, and a review of terminology, notation, and concepts. A variety of word topics are covered, including: similar and congruent triangles, the Pythagorean theorem, circles, chords, tangents, alternate interior angles, the triangle inequality, the angle sum theorem, quadrilaterals, regular polygons, area of plane figures, inscribed and circumscribed figures, and the centroid of a triangle. The author, Chris McMullen, Ph.D., has over twenty years of experience teaching math skills to physics students. He prepared this workbook to share his strategies for writing geometry proofs.
According to the great mathematician Paul Erdös, God maintains perfect mathematical proofs in The Book. This book presents the authors candidates for such "perfect proofs," those which contain brilliant ideas, clever connections, and wonderful observations, bringing new insight and surprising perspectives to problems from number theory, geometry, analysis, combinatorics, and graph theory. As a result, this book will be fun reading for anyone with an interest in mathematics.
Many students have trouble the first time they take a mathematics course in which proofs play a significant role. This new edition of Velleman's successful text will prepare students to make the transition from solving problems to proving theorems by teaching them the techniques needed to read and write proofs. The book begins with the basic concepts of logic and set theory, to familiarize students with the language of mathematics and how it is interpreted. These concepts are used as the basis for a step-by-step breakdown of the most important techniques used in constructing proofs. The author shows how complex proofs are built up from these smaller steps, using detailed 'scratch work' sections to expose the machinery of proofs about the natural numbers, relations, functions, and infinite sets. To give students the opportunity to construct their own proofs, this new edition contains over 200 new exercises, selected solutions, and an introduction to Proof Designer software. No background beyond standard high school mathematics is assumed. This book will be useful to anyone interested in logic and proofs: computer scientists, philosophers, linguists, and of course mathematicians.
This text on mathematical problem solving provides a comprehensive outline of "problemsolving-ology," concentrating on strategy and tactics. It discusses a number of standard mathematical subjects such as combinatorics and calculus from a problem solver's perspective.
A “lucid and convincingly argued” narrative of how ancient geometric principles continue to shape the contemporary world (Publishers Weekly). On a cloudy day in 1413, a balding young man stood at the entrance to the Cathedral of Florence, facing the ancient Baptistery across the piazza. As puzzled passers-by looked on, he raised a small painting to his face, then held a mirror in front of the painting. Few at the time understood what he was up to; even he barely had an inkling of what was at stake. But on that day, the master craftsman and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi would prove that the world and everything within it was governed by the ancient science of geometry. In Proof!, the award-winning historian Amir Alexander traces the path of the geometrical vision of the world as it coursed its way from the Renaissance to the present, shaping our societies, our politics, and our ideals. Geometry came to stand for a fixed and unchallengeable universal order, and kings, empire-builders, and even republican revolutionaries would rush to cast their rule as the apex of the geometrical universe. For who could doubt the right of a ruler or the legitimacy of a government that drew its power from the immutable principles of Euclidean geometry? From the elegant terraces of Versailles to the broad avenues of Washington, DC, and on to the boulevards of New Delhi and Manila, the geometrical vision was carved into the landscape of modernity. Euclid, Alexander shows, made the world as we know it possible.
A hilarious reeducation in mathematics-full of joy, jokes, and stick figures-that sheds light on the countless practical and wonderful ways that math structures and shapes our world. In Math With Bad Drawings, Ben Orlin reveals to us what math actually is; its myriad uses, its strange symbols, and the wild leaps of logic and faith that define the usually impenetrable work of the mathematician. Truth and knowledge come in multiple forms: colorful drawings, encouraging jokes, and the stories and insights of an empathetic teacher who believes that math should belong to everyone. Orlin shows us how to think like a mathematician by teaching us a brand-new game of tic-tac-toe, how to understand an economic crises by rolling a pair of dice, and the mathematical headache that ensues when attempting to build a spherical Death Star. Every discussion in the book is illustrated with Orlin's trademark "bad drawings," which convey his message and insights with perfect pitch and clarity. With 24 chapters covering topics from the electoral college to human genetics to the reasons not to trust statistics, Math with Bad Drawings is a life-changing book for the math-estranged and math-enamored alike.
This is a challenging problem-solving book in Euclidean geometry, assuming nothing of the reader other than a good deal of courage. Topics covered included cyclic quadrilaterals, power of a point, homothety, triangle centers; along the way the reader will meet such classical gems as the nine-point circle, the Simson line, the symmedian and the mixtilinear incircle, as well as the theorems of Euler, Ceva, Menelaus, and Pascal. Another part is dedicated to the use of complex numbers and barycentric coordinates, granting the reader both a traditional and computational viewpoint of the material. The final part consists of some more advanced topics, such as inversion in the plane, the cross ratio and projective transformations, and the theory of the complete quadrilateral. The exposition is friendly and relaxed, and accompanied by over 300 beautifully drawn figures. The emphasis of this book is placed squarely on the problems. Each chapter contains carefully chosen worked examples, which explain not only the solutions to the problems but also describe in close detail how one would invent the solution to begin with. The text contains a selection of 300 practice problems of varying difficulty from contests around the world, with extensive hints and selected solutions. This book is especially suitable for students preparing for national or international mathematical olympiads or for teachers looking for a text for an honor class.