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The Universe in a Handkerchief : Lewis Carroll’s Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Word Plays
This book contains scores of intriguing puzzles and paradoxes from Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, whose interests ranged from inventing new games like Arithmetical Croquet to important problems in symbolic logic and propositional calculus. Written by Carroll expert and well-known mathematics author Martin Gardner, this tour through Carroll's inventions is both fun and informative.
The Universe Before the Big Bang : Cosmology and String Theory
Terms such as "expanding Universe", "big bang", and "initial singularity", are nowadays part of our common language. The idea that the Universe we observe today originated from an enormous explosion (big bang) is now well known and widely accepted, at all levels, in modern popular culture. But what happens to the Universe before the big bang? And would it make any sense at all to ask such a question? In fact, recent progress in theoretical physics, and in particular in String Theory, suggests answers to the above questions, providing us with mathematical tools able in principle to reconstruct the history of the Universe even for times before the big bang.
The Square Root of 2 : A Dialogue Concerning a Number and a Sequence
The square root of 2 is a fascinating number – if a little less famous than such mathematical stars as pi, the number e, the golden ratio, or the square root of –1. (Each of these has been honored by at least one recent book.) Here, in an imaginary dialogue between teacher and student, readers will learn why v2 is an important number in its own right, and how, in puzzling out its special qualities, mathematicians gained insights into the illusive nature of irrational numbers. Using no more than basic high school algebra and geometry, David Flannery manages to convey not just why v2 is fascinating and significant, but how the whole enterprise of mathematical thinking can be played out in a dialogue that is imaginative, intriguing, and engaging.
The Seventeen Provers of the World : Foreword by Dana S. Scott
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first time a mathematical theorem was proven by a computer system, Freek Wiedijk initiated the present book in 2004 by inviting formalizations of a proof of the irrationality of the square root of two from scientists using various theorem proving systems. The 17 systems included in this volume are among the most relevant ones for the formalization of mathematics. The systems are showcased by presentation of the formalized proof and a description in the form of answers to a standard questionnaire. The 17 systems presented are HOL, Mizar, PVS, Coq, Otter/Ivy, Isabelle/Isar, Alfa/Agda, ACL2, PhoX, IMPS, Metamath, Theorema, Leog, Nuprl, Omega, B method, and Minlog.
The Schur Complement and Its Applications
The Schur complement plays an important role in matrix analysis, statistics, numerical analysis, and many other areas of mathematics and its applications. This book describes the Schur complement as a rich and basic tool in mathematical research and applications and discusses many significant results that illustrate its power and fertility.
The Role of Mathematics in Physical Sciences ; Interdisciplinary and Philosophical Aspects
Even though mathematics and physics have been related for centuries and this relation appears to be unproblematic, there are many questions still open: Is mathematics really necessary for physics, or could physics exist without mathematics? Should we think physically and then add the mathematics apt to formalise our physical intuition, or should we think mathematically and then interpret physically the obtained results? Do we get mathematical objects by abstraction from real objects, or vice versa? Why is mathematics effective into physics? These are all relevant questions, whose answers are necessary to fully understand the status of physics, particularly of contemporary physics. The aim of this book is to offer plausible answers to such questions through both historical analyses of relevant cases, and philosophical analyses of the relations between mathematics and physics.
The Road To General Intelligence
"The recent notable successes of Machine Learning has lead to conjecture that it might be the appropriate technology for delivering General Intelligence. This book argues that the framework of machine learning is fundamentally at odds with any reasonable notion of intelligence and that essential insights from previous decades of AI research are being forgotten. Details the pragmatic requirements for real-world General Intelligence / Describes how machine learning fails to meet these requirements / Provides a philosophical basis for the proposed approach / Provides mathematical detail for a reference architecture / Describes a research program intended to address issues of concern in contemporary AI."
The Riemann Hypothesis : A Resource for the Afficionado and Virtuoso Alike
The Riemann Hypothesis has become the Holy Grail of mathematics in the century and a half since 1859 when Bernhard Riemann, one of the extraordinary mathematical talents of the 19th century, originally posed the problem. While the problem is notoriously difficult, and complicated even to state carefully, it can be loosely formulated as "the number of integers with an even number of prime factors is the same as the number of integers with an odd number of prime factors."
The Random-Cluster Model
The random-cluster model has emerged in recent years as a key tool in the mathematical study of ferromagnetism. It may be viewed as an extension of percolation to include Ising and Potts models, and its analysis is a mix of arguments from probability and geometry. This systematic study includes accounts of the subcritical and supercritical phases, together with clear statements of important open problems. There is an extensive treatment of the first-order (discontinuous) phase transition, as well as a chapter devoted to applications of the random-cluster method to other models of statistical physics.
The Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education : Intellectual and attitudinal challenges
This book comprises the Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-12), which was held at COEX in Seoul, Korea, from July 8th to 15th, 2012. ICME-12 brought together 4700 experts from 100 countries, working to understand all of the intellectual and attitudinal challenges in the subject of mathematics education as a multidisciplinary research and practice. This work aims to serve as a platform for deeper, more sensitive and more collaborative involvement of all major contributors towards educational improvement and in research on the nature of teaching and learning in mathematics education. It introduces the major activities at ICME-12 which has successfully contributed to the sustainable development of mathematics education across the world.
The Philosophy of Mathematics Education
This survey provides a brief and selective overview of research in the philosophy of mathematics education. It asks what makes up the philosophy of mathematics education, what it means, what questions it asks and answers, and what is its overall importance and use? It provides overviews of critical mathematics education, and the most relevant modern movements in the philosophy of mathematics. A case study is provided of an emerging research tradition in one country. This is the Hermeneutic strand of research in the philosophy of mathematics education in Brazil. This illustrates one orientation towards research inquiry in the philosophy of mathematics education. It is part of a broader practice of ‘philosophical archaeology’: the uncovering of hidden assumptions and buried ideologies within the concepts and methods of research and practice in mathematics education. An extensive bibliography is also included.
The Painlevé Handbook
This book introduces the reader to methods allowing one to build explicit solutions to these equations. A prerequisite task is to investigate whether the chances of success are high or low, and this can be achieved without any a priori knowledge of the solutions, with a powerful algorithm presented in detail called the Painlevé test. If the equation under study passes the Painlevé test, the equation is presumed integrable. If on the contrary the test fails, the system is nonintegrable or even chaotic, but it may still be possible to find solutions.
The Modern Algebra of Information Retrieval
This book takes a unique approach to information retrieval by laying down the foundations for a modern algebra of information retrieval based on lattice theory. All major retrieval methods developed so far are described in detail ئ Boolean, Vector Space and probabilistic methods, but also Web retrieval algorithms like PageRank, HITS, and SALSA ئ and the author shows that they all can be treated elegantly in a unified formal way, using lattice theory as the one basic concept. Further, he also demonstrates that the lattice-based approach to information retrieval allows us to formulate new retrieval methods. Sándor Dominichѫs presentation is characterized by an engineering-like approach, describing all methods and technologies with as much mathematics as needed for clarity and exactness.
The Mathematics of the Bose Gas and its Condensation
This book contains a unique survey of the mathematically rigorous results about the quantum-mechanical many-body problem.It addresses a topic that is not only rich mathematically, using a large variety of techniques in mathematical analysis, but is also one with strong ties to current experiments on ultra-cold Bose gases and Bose-Einstein condensation. The book provides a pedagogical entry into an active area .The book also provides a coherent summary of the field and a reference for mathematicians and physicists active in research on quantum mechanics.
The Mathematics of Arbitrage
This long-awaited book aims at a rigorous mathematical treatment of the theory of pricing and hedging of derivative securities by the principle of 'no arbitrage'. The first part presents a relatively elementary introduction, restricting itself to the case of finite probability spaces. The second part consists of an updated edition of seven original research papers by the authors, which analyse the topic in the general framework of semi-martingale theory.
The Mathematical Theory of Finite Element Methods
This book develops the basic mathematical theory of the finite element method, the most widely used technique for engineering design and analysis. The third edition contains four new sections: the BDDC domain decomposition preconditioner, convergence analysis of an adaptive algorithm, interior penalty methods and Poincara'e-Friedrichs inequalities for piecewise W^1_p functions. New exercises have also been added throughout.
The Mathematica GuideBook for Symbolics
"The Mathematica GuideBook for Symbolics"deals with Mathematica's symbolic mathematical capabilities. Structural and mathematical operations on single and systems of polynomials are fundamental to many symbolic calculations and they are covered in considerable detail. The solution of equations and differential equations, as well as the classical calculus operations (differentiation, integration, summation, series expansion, limits) are exhaustively treated.
The Mathematica GuideBook for Numerics
Mathematica is today's most advanced technical computing system, featuring a rich programming environment, two-and three-dimensional graphics capabilities and hundreds of sophisticated, powerful programming and mathematical functions using state-of-the-art algorithms. Combined with a user-friendly interface and a complete mathematical typesetting system, Mathematica offers an intuitive, easy-to-handle environment of great power and utility.The available types of arithmetic (machine, high-precision, and interval) are introduced, discussed, and put to use. Fundamental numerical operations, such as compiling programs, fast Fourier transforms, minimization, numerical solution of equations, ordinary/partial differential equations are analyzed in detail and are applied to a large number of examples in the main text and solutions to the exercises.
The Legacy of Mario Pieri in Geometry and Arithmetic
The Italian mathematician Mario Pieri (1860-1913) played an integral part in the research groups of Corrado Segre and Giuseppe Peano, and thus had a significant, yet somewhat underappreciated impact on several branches of mathematics, particularly on the development of algebraic geometry and the foundations of mathematics in the years around the turn of the 20th century. This book is the first in a series of three volumes that are dedicated to countering that neglect and comprehensively examining Pieri’s life, mathematical work, and influence in such diverse fields as mathematical logic, algebraic geometry, number theory, inversive geometry, vector analysis, and differential geometry.
The Legacy of Felix Klein
Provides an overview of Felix Klein’s ideas, highlighting developments in university teaching and school mathematics related to Klein’s thoughts, stemming from the last century. It discusses the meaning, importance and the legacy of Klein’s ideas today and in the future, within an international, global context. Presenting extended versions of the talks at the Thematic Afternoon at ICME-13, the book shows that many of Klein’s ideas can be reinterpreted in the context of the current situation, and offers tips and advice for dealing with current problems in teacher education and teaching mathematics in secondary schools. It proves that old ideas are timeless, but that it takes competent, committed and assertive individuals to bring these ideas to life.
