Mathematical Journeys (Paperback)

A colorful tour through the intriguing world of mathematics The world of modern mathematics abounds with fascinating, unusual ideas ideas and concepts even seasoned mathematicians often wonder about. Mathematical Journeys takes you on a grand tour of the best of modern math its most elegant solutions, most clever discoveries, most mind-bending propositions, and most impressive personalities. Writing with a light touch while showing the real mathematics, author Peter Schumer introduces you to the history of mathematics, number theory, combinatorics, geometry, graph theory, and "recreational mathematics." Requiring only high school math and a healthy curiosity, Mathematical Journeys helps you explore all those aspects of math that mathematicians themselves find most delightful. You'll discover brilliant, sometimes quirky and humorous tidbits like how to compute the digits of pi, the Josephus problem, mathematical amusements such as Nim and Wythoff's game, pizza slicing, and clever twists on rolling dice. For a glimpse of the minds that gave birth to the math, read the profiles of such great thinkers as Paul Erdos and Leonhard Euler. Each chapter of the book focuses on some interestin