Lateral Solutions to Mathematical Problems

This book offers a fresh approach to mathematical problem solving via lateral thinking. This book is appropriate for interested high school students, undergraduates and postgraduates, looking for relief from technical material and also looking for insight into the methodology of mathematics.

Lateral Solutions to Mathematical Problems offers a fresh approach to mathematical problem solving via lateral thinking. Lateral thinking has long been used informally by good mathematics teachers and lecturers to spice up their material and interest their students in the more artistic aspects of mathematical problem solving. In this book, the author attempts to carry out this process formally, with reference to specific, non-technical problems that are easily understood and explained at an intermediate level.

This book is appropriate for interested high school students, undergraduates and postgraduates, looking for relief from technical material and also looking for insight into the methodology of mathematics; for teachers and lecturers looking for a novel approach to course material; and anyone interested in both mathematics and lateral thinking.

Autorentext

Des MacHale was born in Castlebar, Co.Mayo, Ireland. He holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mathematical Science from University College Galway and a Ph.D. degree in Algebra from the University of Keele in the UK. He is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where he taught for forty years. He is author of over sixty published books on such diverse topics as Lateral Thinking Puzzles (with Paul Sloane), Wit, Jokes, Puzzles, George Boole,John Ford's movie The Quiet Man, and giving up smoking. Among his interests are Geology (in which he has a diploma), photography, broadcasting, book collecting, recreational mathematics, humour, family history, and puzzles of all kinds. He and his long-suffering wife Anne have five wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren and live in Cork. Logic Press (logicpress.ie) publishes books related to Mathematics, including other titles by Des MacHale, and has a Less Serious Division (logicpress.ie/LS/), which caters to the rest of life.

Klappentext

Lateral Solutions to Mathematical Problems offers a fresh approach to mathematical problem solving via lateral thinking. Lateral thinking has long been used informally by good mathematics teachers and lecturers to spice up their material and interest their students in the more artistic aspects of mathematical problem solving. In this book, the author attempts to carry out this process formally, with reference to specific, non-technical problems that are easily understood and explained at an intermediate level. This book is appropriate for interested high school students, undergraduates and postgraduates, looking for relief from technical material and also looking for insight into the methodology of mathematics; for teachers and lecturers looking for a novel approach to course material; and anyone interested in both mathematics and lateral thinking.

Inhalt

Problems and Solutions

1. Number Theory.
2. Primes and Divisibility.
3. Geometry.
4. Trigonometry.
5. Probability.
6. Combinatorics.
7. Dissections.
8. Matchsticks and Coins.
9. Logic.
10. Maxima and Minima.
11. Calculus and Analysis.
12. A Mixed Bag.