The best writing on mathematics. / Mircea Pitici, editor.
| Other author | Pitici, Mircea, 1965- editor. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020] |
| Copyright Date | ©2020 |
| Description | xiv, 228 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | The best writing on mathematics ; 11 |
| Contents | Introduction / Mircea Pitici -- Outsmarting a virus with math / Steven Strogatz -- Uncertainty / Peter J. Denning and Ted G. Lewis -- The inescapable casino / Bruce M. Boghosian -- Resolving the fuel economy singularity / Stan Wagon -- The median voter theorem: Why politicians move to the center / Jørgen Veisdal -- The math that takes Newton into the Quantum World / John Baez -- Decades-old computer science conjecture solved in two pages / Erica Klarreich -- The three-body problem / Richard Montgomery -- The intrigues and delights of Kleinian and Quasi-Fuchsian limit sets / Chris King -- Mathematical treasures from Sid Sackson / Jim Henle -- The amazing math inside the Rubik's Cube / Dave Linkletter -- What is a Hyperbolic 3-Manifold? / Colin Adams -- Higher dimensional geometries: What are they good for? / Boris Odehnal -- Who mourns the tenth heegner number? / James Propp -- On your mark, get set, multiply / Patrick Honner -- 1994, the year calculus was born / Ben Orlin -- Gauss's computation of the Easter date / Donald Teets -- Mathematical knowledge and reality / Paul Thagard -- The ins and outs of mathematical explanation / Mark Colyvan -- Statistical intervals, not statistical significance / Gerald J. Hahn, Necip Doganaksoy, and William Q. Meeter. |
| Abstract | "The year's finest mathematical writing from around the world. 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 2020 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 aspects of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today's hottest mathematical debates.Here, Steven Strogatz reveals how calculus drives advances in virology, Paul Thagard argues that the power of mathematics stems from its combination of realistic and fictional qualities, and Erica Klarreich describes how Hao Huang used the combinatorics of cube nodes to solve a longstanding problem in computer science. In other essays, John Baez tells how he discovered the irresistible attractions of algebraic geometry, Mark Colyvan compares the radically different explanatory practices of mathematics and science, and Boris Odehnal reviews some surprising properties of multidimensional geometries" --from the back cover. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references. |
| Genre/form | Popular works. |
| ISBN | 0691207569 paperback |
| ISBN | 9780691207568 paperback |
| ISBN | 0691207577 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9780691207575 hardcover |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | QA8.6 .B337 2020 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |