Proofs without words (PWWs) are figures or diagrams that help the reader see why a particular mathematical statement is true, and how one might begin to formally prove it true. PWWs are not new, many date back to classical Greece, ancient China, and medieval Europe and the Middle East. PWWs have been regular features of the MAA journals Mathematics Magazine and The College Mathematics Journal for many years, and the MAA published the collections of PWWs Proofs Without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking in 1993 and Proofs Without Words II: More Exercises in Visual Thinking in 2000. This book is the third such collection of PWWs.
Theorems and their proofs lie at the heart of mathematics. In speaking of the purely aesthetic qualities of theorems and proofs, G. H. Hardy wrote that in beautiful proofs 'there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy'. Charming Proofs presents a collection of remarkable proofs in elementary mathematics that are exceptionally elegant, full of ingenuity, and succinct. By means of a surprising argument or a powerful visual representation, the proofs in this collection will invite readers to enjoy the beauty of mathematics, and to develop the ability to create proofs themselves. The authors consider proofs from topics such as geometry, number theory, inequalities, plane tilings, origami and polyhedra. Secondary school and university teachers can use this book to introduce their students to mathematical elegance. More than 130 exercises for the reader (with solutions) are also included.
Like its predecessor, Proofs without Words, this book is a collection of pictures or diagrams that help the reader see why a particular mathematical statement may be true, and how one could begin to go about proving it. While in some proofs without words an equation or two may appear to help guide that process, the emphasis is clearly on providing visual clues to stimulate mathematical thought. The proofs in this collection are arranged by topic into five chapters: geometry and algebra; trigonometry, calculus and analytic geometry; inequalities; integer sums; and sequences and series. Teachers will find that many of the proofs in this collection are well suited for classroom discussion and for helping students to think visually in mathematics.
A thespian or cinematographer might define a cameo as a brief appearance of a known figure, while a gemologist or lapidary might define it as a precious or semiprecious stone. This book presents fifty short enhancements or supplements (the cameos) for the first-year calculus course in which a geometric figure briefly appears. Some of the cameos illustrate mainstream topics such as the derivative, combinatorial formulas used to compute Riemann sums, or the geometry behind many geometric series. Other cameos present topics accessible to students at the calculus level but not usually encountered in the course, such as the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality, and the Euler-Mascheroni constant. There are fifty cameos in the book, grouped into five sections: Part I. Limits and Differentiation, Part II. Integration, Part III. Infinite Series, Part IV. Additional Topics, and Part V. Appendix: Some Precalculus Topics. Many of the cameos include exercises, so Solutions to all the Exercises follows Part V. The book concludes with references and an index. Many of the cameos are adapted from articles published in journals of the MAA, such as The American Mathematical Monthly, Mathematics Magazine, and The College Mathematics Journal. Some come from other mathematical journals, and some were created for this book. By gathering the cameos into a book the [Author]; hopes that they will be more accessible to teachers of calculus, both for use in the classroom and as supplementary explorations for students.
Nuggets of Number Theory will attract fans of visual thinking, number theory, and surprising connections. This book contains hundreds of visual explanations of results from elementary number theory. Figurate numbers and Pythagorean triples feature prominently, of course, but there are also proofs of Fermat's Little and Wilson's Theorems. Fibonacci and perfect numbers, Pell's equation, and continued fractions all find visual representation in this charming collection. It will be a rich source of visual inspiration for anyone teaching, or learning, number theory and will provide endless pleasure to those interested in looking at number theory with new eyes. [Author]; Roger Nelsen is a long-time contributor of ``Proofs Without Words'' in the MAA's Mathematics Magazine and College Mathematics Journal. This is his twelfth book with MAA Press.
The study of copulas and their role in statistics is a new but vigorously growing field. In this book the student or practitioner of statistics and probability will find discussions of the fundamental properties of copulas and some of their primary applications. The applications include the study of dependence and measures of association, and the construction of families of bivariate distributions. This book is suitable as a text or for self-study.
Theorems and their proofs lie at the heart of mathematics. In speaking of the purely aesthetic qualities of theorems and proofs, G. H. Hardy wrote that in beautiful proofs 'there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy'. Charming Proofs presents a collection of remarkable proofs in elementary mathematics that are exceptionally elegant, full of ingenuity, and succinct. By means of a surprising argument or a powerful visual representation, the proofs in this collection will invite readers to enjoy the beauty of mathematics, and to develop the ability to create proofs themselves. The authors consider proofs from topics such as geometry, number theory, inequalities, plane tilings, origami and polyhedra. Secondary school and university teachers can use this book to introduce their students to mathematical elegance. More than 130 exercises for the reader (with solutions) are also included.
Nuggets of Number Theory will attract fans of visual thinking, number theory, and surprising connections. This book contains hundreds of visual explanations of results from elementary number theory. Figurate numbers and Pythagorean triples feature prominently, of course, but there are also proofs of Fermat's Little and Wilson's Theorems. Fibonacci and perfect numbers, Pell's equation, and continued fractions all find visual representation in this charming collection. It will be a rich source of visual inspiration for anyone teaching, or learning, number theory and will provide endless pleasure to those interested in looking at number theory with new eyes. [Author]; Roger Nelsen is a long-time contributor of ``Proofs Without Words'' in the MAA's Mathematics Magazine and College Mathematics Journal. This is his twelfth book with MAA Press.
The authors present twenty icons of mathematics, that is, geometrical shapes such as the right triangle, the Venn diagram, and the yang and yin symbol and explore mathematical results associated with them. As with their previous books (Charming Proofs, When Less is More, Math Made Visual) proofs are visual whenever possible. The results require no more than high-school mathematics to appreciate and many of them will be new even to experienced readers. Besides theorems and proofs, the book contains many illustrations and it gives connections of the icons to the world outside of mathematics. There are also problems at the end of each chapter, with solutions provided in an appendix. The book could be used by students in courses in problem solving, mathematical reasoning, or mathematics for the liberal arts. It could also be read with pleasure by professional mathematicians, as it was by the members of the Dolciani editorial board, who unanimously recommend its publication.
Copulas are functions that join multivariate distribution functions to their one-dimensional margins. The study of copulas and their role in statistics is a new but vigorously growing field. In this book the student or practitioner of statistics and probability will find discussions of the fundamental properties of copulas and some of their primary applications. The applications include the study of dependence and measures of association, and the construction of families of bivariate distributions. With nearly a hundred examples and over 150 exercises, this book is suitable as a text or for self-study. The only prerequisite is an upper level undergraduate course in probability and mathematical statistics, although some familiarity with nonparametric statistics would be useful. Knowledge of measure-theoretic probability is not required. Roger B. Nelsen is Professor of Mathematics at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He is also the author of "Proofs Without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking," published by the Mathematical Association of America.
The object of this book is to show how visualization techniques may be employed to produce pictures that have interest for the creation, communication and teaching of mathematics. Mathematical drawings related to proofs have been produced since antiquity in China, Arabia, Greece and India but only in the last thirty years has there been a growing interest in so-called 'proofs without words.' In this book the authors show that behind most of the pictures 'proving' mathematical relations are some well-understood methods. The first part of the book consists of twenty short chapters, each one describing a method to visualize some mathematical idea (a proof, a concept, an operation,...) and several applications to concrete cases. Following this the book examines general pedagogical considerations concerning the development of visual thinking, practical approaches for making visualizations in the classroom and a discussion of the role that hands-on material plays in this process.
A thespian or cinematographer might define a cameo as a brief appearance of a known figure, while a gemologist or lapidary might define it as a precious or semiprecious stone. This book presents fifty short enhancements or supplements (the cameos) for the first-year calculus course in which a geometric figure briefly appears. Some of the cameos illustrate mainstream topics such as the derivative, combinatorial formulas used to compute Riemann sums, or the geometry behind many geometric series. Other cameos present topics accessible to students at the calculus level but not usually encountered in the course, such as the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, the arithmetic mean-geometric mean inequality, and the Euler-Mascheroni constant. There are fifty cameos in the book, grouped into five sections: Part I. Limits and Differentiation, Part II. Integration, Part III. Infinite Series, Part IV. Additional Topics, and Part V. Appendix: Some Precalculus Topics. Many of the cameos include exercises, so Solutions to all the Exercises follows Part V. The book concludes with references and an index. Many of the cameos are adapted from articles published in journals of the MAA, such as The American Mathematical Monthly, Mathematics Magazine, and The College Mathematics Journal. Some come from other mathematical journals, and some were created for this book. By gathering the cameos into a book the [Author]; hopes that they will be more accessible to teachers of calculus, both for use in the classroom and as supplementary explorations for students.
A Cornucopia of Quadrilaterals collects and organizes hundreds of beautiful and surprising results about four-sided figures—for example, that the midpoints of the sides of any quadrilateral are the vertices of a parallelogram, or that in a convex quadrilateral (not a parallelogram) the line through the midpoints of the diagonals (the Newton line) is equidistant from opposite vertices, or that, if your quadrilateral has an inscribed circle, its center lies on the Newton line. There are results dating back to Euclid: the side-lengths of a pentagon, a hexagon, and a decagon inscribed in a circle can be assembled into a right triangle (the proof uses a quadrilateral and circumscribing circle); and results dating to Erdős: from any point in a triangle the sum of the distances to the vertices is at least twice as large as the sum of the distances to the sides. The book is suitable for serious study, but it equally rewards the reader who dips in randomly. It contains hundreds of challenging four-sided problems. Instructors of number theory, combinatorics, analysis, and geometry will find examples and problems to enrich their courses. The authors have carefully and skillfully organized the presentation into a variety of themes so the chapters flow seamlessly in a coherent narrative journey through the landscape of quadrilaterals. The authors' exposition is beautifully clear and compelling and is accessible to anyone with a high school background in geometry.
Proofs without words (PWWs) are figures or diagrams that help the reader see why a particular mathematical statement is true, and how one might begin to formally prove it true. PWWs are not new, many date back to classical Greece, ancient China, and medieval Europe and the Middle East. PWWs have been regular features of the MAA journals Mathematics Magazine and The College Mathematics Journal for many years, and the MAA published the collections of PWWs Proofs Without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking in 1993 and Proofs Without Words II: More Exercises in Visual Thinking in 2000. This book is the third such collection of PWWs.
College Calculus: A One-Term Course for Students with Previous Calculus Experience is a textbook for students who have successfully experienced an introductory calculus course in high school. College Calculus begins with a brief review of some of the content of the high school calculus course, and proceeds to give students a thorough grounding in the remaining topics in single variable calculus, including integration techniques, applications of the definite integral, separable and linear differential equations, hyperbolic functions, parametric equations and polar coordinates, L’Hôpital’s rule and improper integrals, continuous probability models, and infinite series. Each chapter concludes with several “Explorations,” extended discovery investigations to supplement that chapter’s material. The text is ideal as the basis of a course focused on the needs of prospective majors in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). A one-term course based on this text provides students with a solid foundation in single variable calculus and prepares them for the next course in college level mathematics, be it multivariable calculus, linear algebra, a course in discrete mathematics, statistics, etc.
Solid geometry is the traditional name for what we call today the geometry of three-dimensional Euclidean space. Courses in solid geometry have largely disappeared from American high schools and colleges. The authors are convinced that a mathematical exploration of three-dimensional geometry merits some attention in today’s curriculum. A Mathematical Space Odyssey: Solid Geometry in the 21st Century is devoted to presenting techniques for proving a variety of mathematical results in three-dimensional space, techniques that may improve one’s ability to think visually. Special attention is given to the classical icons of solid geometry (prisms, pyramids, platonic solids, cones, cylinders, and spheres) and many new and classical results: Cavalieri’s principle, Commandino’s theorem, de Gua’s theorem, Prince Rupert’s cube, the Menger sponge, the Schwarz lantern, Euler’s rotation theorem, the Loomis-Whitney inequality, Pythagorean theorems in three dimensions, etc. The authors devote a chapter to each of the following basic techniques for exploring space and proving theorems: enumeration, representation, dissection, plane sections, intersection, iteration, motion, projection, and folding and unfolding. In addition to many figures illustrating theorems and their proofs, a selection of photographs of three-dimensional works of art and architecture are included. Each chapter includes a selection of Challenges for the reader to explore further properties and applications. It concludes with solutions to all the Challenges in the book, references, and a complete index. Readers should be familiar with high school algebra, plane and analytic geometry, and trigonometry. While brief appearances of calculus do occur, no knowledge of calculus is necessary to enjoy this book.
Proofs without words are generally pictures or diagrams that help the reader see why a particular mathematical statement may be true, and how one could begin to go about proving it. While in some proofs without words an equation or two may appear to help guide that process, the emphasis is clearly on providing visual clues to stimulate mathematical thought. The proofs in this collection are arranged by topic into five chapters: Geometry and algebra; Trigonometry, calculus and analytic geometry; Inequalities; Integer sums; and Sequences and series. Teachers will find that many of the proofs in this collection are well suited for classroom discussion and for helping students to think visually in mathematics.
Like its predecessor, Proofs without Words, this book is a collection of pictures or diagrams that help the reader see why a particular mathematical statement may be true and how one could begin to go about proving it. While in some proofs without words an equation or two may appear to help guide that process, the emphasis is clearly on providing visual clues to stimulate mathematical thought. The proofs in this collection are arranged by topic into five chapters: geometry and algebra; trigonometry, calculus and analytic geometry; inequalities; integer sums; and sequences and series. Teachers will find that many of the proofs in this collection are well suited for classroom discussion and for helping students to think visually in mathematics.
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