The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking


Edward B. Burger - 1999
    In this new, innovative overview textbook, the authors put special emphasis on the deep ideas of mathematics, and present the subject through lively and entertaining examples, anecdotes, challenges and illustrations, all of which are designed to excite the student's interest. The underlying ideas include topics from number theory, infinity, geometry, topology, probability and chaos theory. Throughout the text, the authors stress that mathematics is an analytical way of thinking, one that can be brought to bear on problem solving and effective thinking in any field of study.

Statistics Hacks: Tips & Tools for Measuring the World and Beating the Odds


Bruce B. Frey - 1980
    These cool tips, tricks, and mind-boggling solutions from the world of statistics, measurement, and research methods will not only amaze and entertain you, but will give you an advantage in several real-world situations-including business.This book is ideal for anyone who likes puzzles, brainteasers, games, gambling, magic tricks, and those who want to apply math and science to everyday circumstances. Several hacks in the first chapter alone-such as the "central limit theorem,", which allows you to know everything by knowing just a little-serve as sound approaches for marketing and other business objectives. Using the tools of inferential statistics, you can understand the way probability works, discover relationships, predict events with uncanny accuracy, and even make a little money with a well-placed wager here and there.Statistics Hacks presents useful techniques from statistics, educational and psychological measurement, and experimental research to help you solve a variety of problems in business, games, and life. You'll learn how to:Play smart when you play Texas Hold 'Em, blackjack, roulette, dice games, or even the lottery Design your own winnable bar bets to make money and amaze your friends Predict the outcomes of baseball games, know when to "go for two" in football, and anticipate the winners of other sporting events with surprising accuracy Demystify amazing coincidences and distinguish the truly random from the only seemingly random--even keep your iPod's "random" shuffle honest Spot fraudulent data, detect plagiarism, and break codes How to isolate the effects of observation on the thing observedWhether you're a statistics enthusiast who does calculations in your sleep or a civilian who is entertained by clever solutions to interesting problems, Statistics Hacks has tools to give you an edge over the world's slim odds.

Mind Tools: The Five Levels of Mathematical Reality


Rudy Rucker - 1987
    Reveals mathematics' great power as an alternative language for understanding things and explores such concepts as logic as a computing tool, digital versus analog processes and communication as information transmission.

Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing


Paul B. Janeczko - 2004
    Cyr slide from a Cardano grille? Did you know that the discovery of a substitution cipher caused Mary Queen of Scots to lose her head? Don't look now, but packed into this practical field guide is everything a young person needs to know about the art of concealment - making and breaking codes, mastering cipher systems, and experimenting with secret writing. Offering plenty of hands-on practice sessions, tips for creating a code-making kit, sidebars on secret codes in history, and an amusing pair of spies to illustrate techniques, Paul B. Janeczko's tantalizing TOP SECRET won't stay a secret for long.

Risk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions


Gerd Gigerenzer - 2013
    But as risk expert Gerd Gigerenzer shows, the surprising truth is that in the real world, we often get better results by using simple rules and considering less information. In Risk Savvy, Gigerenzer reveals that most of us, including doctors, lawyers, financial advisers, and elected officials, misunderstand statistics much more often than we think, leaving us not only misinformed, but vulnerable to exploitation. Yet there is hope. Anyone can learn to make better decisions for their health, finances, family, and business without needing to consult an expert or a super computer, and Gigerenzer shows us how.Risk Savvy is an insightful and easy-to-understand remedy to our collective information overload and an essential guide to making smart, confident decisions in the face of uncertainty.

Solving Mathematical Problems: A Personal Perspective


Terence Tao - 2006
    Covering number theory, algebra, analysis, Euclidean geometry, and analytic geometry, Solving Mathematical Problems includes numerous exercises and model solutions throughout. Assuming only a basic level of mathematics, the text is ideal for students of 14 years and above in pure mathematics.

The Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics


Jakow Trachtenberg - 1960
    Described as the 'shorthand of mathematics', the Trachtenberg system only requires the ability to count from one to eleven. Using a series of simplified keys it allows anyone to master calculations, giving greater speed, ease in handling numbers and increased accuracy.Jakow Trachtenberg believed that everyone is born with phenomenal abilities to calculate. He devised a set of rules that allows every child to make multiplication, division, addition, subtraction and square-root calculations with unerring accuracy and at remarkable speed. It is the perfect way to gain confidence with numbers.

The 125 Best Brain Teasers of All Time: A Mind-Blowing Challenge of Math, Logic, and Wordplay


Marcel Danesi - 2018
    Collected here to keep your wits sharp, The Best Brain Teasers of All Time features the cleverest brain teasers from around the world and throughout history.The Best Brain Teasers of All Time gives you hours of fun-filled entertainment with brain teasers that develop your problem-solving skills in math, logic, and wordplay. Organized as an integrated challenge, these brain teasers build in momentum as they increase in difficulty from classic nursery rhymes to the riddle of the sphinx.The Best Brain Teasers of All Time puts your mind to the test with: 125 Brain Teasers that require no special skills to solve. Plus, each question comes with an optional clue in case you get stumped and a handy answer key in the back to test yourself or play with friends Brain Teasers for Every Level that cater to beginners and advanced masterminds alike, with brain teasers organized by level of difficulty to improve your skills as you move forward Hints of History that provide fun facts and background information for every brain teaser Get ready to sharpen your wit with every “aha” moment. The Best Brain Teasers of All Time is a go-to source for timeless fun and mind-blowing challenges.

Hidden In Plain Sight 2: The Equation of the Universe


Andrew H. Thomas - 2013
    Enjoy a thrilling intergalactic tour as Andrew Thomas redefines the force of gravity and introduces a brave new view of the universe!

The Art and Craft of Problem Solving


Paul Zeitz - 1999
    Readers are encouraged to do math rather than just study it. The author draws upon his experience as a coach for the International Mathematics Olympiad to give students an enhanced sense of mathematics and the ability to investigate and solve problems.

Mathematical Analysis


S.C. Malik - 1992
    This book discusses real sequences and series, continuity, functions of several variables, elementary and implicit functions, Riemann and Riemann-Stieltjes integrals, and Lebesgue integrals.

Projector for Sale


Steven Decker - 2021
    While searching for a job, her lifelong interest in cinema is sparked by an ad about a projector for sale, and something happens that mysteriously changes everything.Emily not only starts remembering her dreams, she finds herself transforming them into reality, and her life inexplicably begins to blossom. She travels around the world searching for answers, encountering people and experiencing life-changing events that she's dreamed about before, forming relationships that could last a lifetime.But new, powerful dreams compel her to abandon the path she'd hoped to follow, and Emily must now face a final, frightening question. Can she determine her own destiny or will it be written by processes she simply cannot control?

Why Did the Policeman Cross the Road?: How to Solve Problems Before They Arise


Stevyn Colgan - 2016
    He’s one of the writers of the hugely successful BBC TV series QI andThe Museum of Curiosity. But, in a previous career, he spent 30 years as a police officer in London during which he became involved in a small but potent revolution. He and some of his colleagues realised that there was a smarter way to tackle crime and public concerns that didn’t always mean clogging the judicial system with copious arrests or flooding the streets with extra cops. This new style of intelligent problem-solving policing took the cleverest ideas from academic research, military strategy, business, marketing, public health and many other areas of work, mixed them all up with a good dollop of original thinking and solved problems that had previously been labelled as unsolvable.In this remarkable book, he tells the story of his work in Scotland Yard’s innovative Problem Solving Unit and how the team tackled some of London’s most persistent problems. Along the way, you’ll find out how dog shows stopped young men killing each other, how lollipops prevented night club closures, how wheelie bins worked in cahoots with burglars, and why celebrities should be covered in chewing gum. You’ll also discover how bird tables can prevent car crashes, how fake vomit can clean up the streets, and why sitting down in Japan may just result in a sore bottom.Why did the Policeman Cross the Road? is a celebration of original thinking, peppered with fascinating research and entertaining stories in the tradition of books such as Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics, Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Leonard Mlodinow’s The Drunkard’s Walk.And it’s more than possible that the book contains some little tool or technique that could help you solve some of the problems in your own life.

Poincare's Prize: The Hundred-Year Quest to Solve One of Math's Greatest Puzzles


George G. Szpiro - 2007
    Amazingly, the story unveiled in it is true.In the world of math, the Poincaré Conjecture was a holy grail. Decade after decade the theorem that informs how we understand the shape of the universe defied every effort to prove it. Now, after more than a century, an eccentric Russian recluse has found the solution to one of the seven greatest math problems of our time, earning the right to claim the first one-million-dollar Millennium math prize.George Szpiro begins his masterfully told story in 1904 when Frenchman Henri Poincaré formulated a conjecture about a seemingly simple problem. Imagine an ant crawling around on a large surface. How would it know whether the surface is a flat plane, a round sphere, or a bagel- shaped object? The ant would need to lift off into space to observe the object. How could you prove the shape was spherical without actually seeing it? Simply, this is what Poincaré sought to solve.In fact, Poincaré thought he had solved it back at the turn of the twentieth century, but soon realized his mistake. After four more years' work, he gave up. Across the generations from China to Texas, great minds stalked the solution in the wilds of higher dimensions. Among them was Grigory Perelman, a mysterious Russian who seems to have stepped out of a Dostoyevsky novel. Living in near poverty with his mother, he has refused all prizes and academic appointments, and rarely talks to anyone, including fellow mathematicians. It seemed he had lost the race in 2002, when the conjecture was widely but, again, falsely reported as solved. A year later, Perelman dropped three papers onto the Internet that not only proved the Poincaré Conjecture but enlightened the universe of higher dimensions, solving an array of even more mind-bending math with implications that will take an age to unravel. After years of review, his proof has just won him a Fields Medal--the 'Nobel of math'--awarded only once every four years. With no interest in fame, he refused to attend the ceremony, did not accept the medal, and stayed home to watch television.Perelman is a St. Petersburg hero, devoted to an ascetic life of the mind. The story of the enigma in the shape of space that he cracked is part history, part math, and a fascinating tale of the most abstract kind of creativity.

Cryptanalysis: A Study of Ciphers and Their Solution


Helen Fouche Gaines - 1939
    Nihilist, grille, U. S. Army, key-phrase, multiple-alphabet, Gronsfeld, Porta, Beaufort, periodic ciphers, and more. Simple and advanced methods. 166 specimens to solve — with solutions.