The Best Writing on Mathematics 2015 / Mircea Pitici.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pitici, Mircea, Editor.

Series:

The Best Writing on Mathematics ; 14

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Popular works.

Mathematics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (408 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This annual anthology brings together the year's finest mathematics writing from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in the field, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2015 makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else-and you don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today's hottest mathematical debates.Here David Hand explains why we should actually expect unlikely coincidences to happen; Arthur Benjamin and Ethan Brown unveil techniques for improvising custom-made magic number squares; Dana Mackenzie describes how mathematicians are making essential contributions to the development of synthetic biology; Steven Strogatz tells us why it's worth writing about math for people who are alienated from it; Lisa Rougetet traces the earliest written descriptions of Nim, a popular game of mathematical strategy; Scott Aaronson looks at the unexpected implications of testing numbers for randomness; and much, much more.In addition to presenting the year's most memorable writings on mathematics, this must-have anthology includes a bibliography of other notable writings and an introduction by the editor, Mircea Pitici. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in where math has taken us-and where it is headed.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction / Pitici, Mircea

A Dusty Discipline / Barany, Michael J. / MacKenzie, Donald

How Puzzles Made Us Human / Mutalik, Pradeep

Let the Games Continue / Mulcahy, Colm / Richards, Dana

Challenging Magic Squares for Magicians / Benjamin, Arthur T. / Brown, Ethan J.

Candy Crush's Puzzling Mathematics / Walsh, Toby

Chaos on the Billiard Table / Freiberger, Marianne

Juggling with Numbers / Tou, Erik R.

The Quest for Randomness / Aaronson, Scott

Synthetic Biology, Real Mathematics / Mackenzie, Dana

At the Far Ends of a New Universal Law / Wolchover, Natalie

Twisted Math and Beautiful Geometry / Maor, Eli / Jost, Eugen

Kenichi Miura's Water Wheel, or The Dance of the Shapes of Constant Width / Polster, Burkard

Dürer: Disguise, Distance, Disagreements, and Diagonals! / Crannell, Annalisa / Frantz, Marc / Futamura, Fumiko

The Quaternion Group as a Symmetry Group / Hart, Vi / Segerman, Henry

The Steiner- Lehmus Angle- Bisector Theorem / Conway, John / Ryba, Alex

Key Ideas and Memorability in Proof / Hanna, Gila / Mason, John

The Future of High School Mathematics / Fey, Jim / Garfunkel, Sol / Briars, Diane / Isaacs, Andy / Pollak, Henry / Robinson, Eric / Scheaffer, Richard / Schoenfeld, Alan / Seeley, Cathy / Teague, Dan / Usiskin, Zalman

Demystifying the Math Myth: Analyzing the Contributing Factors for the Achievement Gap between Chinese and U.S. Students / Zhang, Guili / Padilla, Miguel A.

The Pigeonhole Principle, Two Centuries before Dirichlet / Rittaud, Benoît / Heeffer, Albrecht

A Prehistory of Nim / Rougetet, Lisa

Gödel, Gentzen, Goodstein: The Magic Sound of a G- String / Plato, Jan von

Global and Local / Franklin, James

Mathematical Beauty, Understanding, and Discovery / Cellucci, Carlo

A Guide for the Perplexed: What Mathematicians Need to Know to Understand Philosophers of Mathematics / Balaguer, Mark

Writing about Math for the Perplexed and the Traumatized / Strogatz, Steven

Is Big Data Enough? A Reflection on the Changing Role of Mathematics in Applications / Napoletani, Domenico / Panza, Marco / Struppa, Daniele C.

The Statistical Crisis in Science / Gelman, Andrew / Loken, Eric

Statistics and the Ontario Lottery Retailer Scandal / Rosenthal, Jeffrey S.

Never Say Never / Hand, David J.

Contributors

Notable Writings

Acknowledgments

Credits

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

ISBN:

9781400873371

1400873371

OCLC:

930781803