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 (5.0 / 5.0) What is the maximum number of pizza slices one can get by making four straight cuts through a circular pizza? How does a computer determine the best set of pixels to represent a straight line on a computer screen? How many people at a minimum does it take to guard an art gallery? Discrete mathematics has the answer to these -- and many other -- questions of picking, choosing, and shuffling. T. S. Michael's gem of a book brings this vital but tough-to-teach subject to life using examples from real life and popular culture. Each chapter uses one problem -- such as slicing a pizza -- to detail key concepts about counting numbers and arranging finite sets. Michael takes a different perspective in tackling each of eight problems and explains them in differing degrees of generality, showing in the process how the same mathematical concepts appear in varied guises and contexts. In doing so, he imparts a broader understanding of the ideas underlying discrete mathematics and helps readers appreciate and understand mathematical thinking and discovery. This book explains the basic concepts of discrete mathematics and demonstrates how to apply them in largely nontechnical language. The explanations and formulas can be grasped with a basic understanding of linear equations. 
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$14.05 |
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 (3.5 / 5.0) Kakuro took the brain-teasing fun of sudoku to the next level by adding math and a crossword puzzle grid. Now, Beat the Clock Kakuro takes kakuro itself to the next level by challenging game players with a time goal for each puzzle. Players can truly test their skills by seeing how their times rank them — from beginner to master. The added time challenge in Beat the Clock Kakuro will help players improve their concentration and solving abilities as they push themselves to achieve lower and lower times on their way to becoming masters.
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$3.84 |
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 (4.5 / 5.0) A pocket book of riddles, full of fun and illustrations.
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$10.95 |
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(3.5 / 5.0) Peter Winkler is at it again. Following the enthusiastic reaction to Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur s Collection, Peter has compiled a new collection of elegant mathematical puzzles to challenge and entertain the reader. The original puzzle connoisseur shares these puzzles, old and new, so that you can add them to your own anthology. This book is for lovers of mathematics, lovers of puzzles, lovers of a challenge. Most of all, it is for those who think that the world of mathematics is orderly, logical, and intuitive-and are ready to learn otherwise!
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$18.95 |
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(5.0 / 5.0) One Hundred Minutes to Better Basic Skills Help middle-grade students master essential math skills with the motivating, classroom-tested Math Minutes format featured in these two new books. Each book provides 100 Minutes of 10 problems each for students to complete within a one- to two-minute period. Providing daily practice in every key area of math instruction, Math Minutes is a fun way to improve students problem-solving speed (crucial for testing situations) and an instant assessment tool.
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$10.62 |
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(4.5 / 5.0) "Deals in a very entertaining way with problems in normal life related to mathematics, luck, coincidence, gambling."– The Independent (London)
Why do your chances of winning the lottery increase if you buy your ticket on Friday? Why do traffic lights always seem to be red when youre in a hurry? Is bad luck just chance, or can it be explained? The intriguing answers to these and other questions about the curiosities of everyday life can be found in this delightfully irreverent and highly informative book. Why Do Buses Come in Threes? explains how math and the laws of probability are constantly at work in our lives, affecting everything we do, from getting a date to catching a bus to cooking dinner. With great humor and a genuine love for the subject, Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham present solutions to such conundrums as how fast one should run in the rain to stay dry and who was the greatest sportsman of all time.Discover the mathematical explanations for the strange coincidence of two. Presidents dying on July 4, the uncanny "accuracy" of horoscopes, and other not-so-coincidental coincidences. Eastaway and Wyndham also reveal how television ratings work, which numbers are more likely to be big winners in the lottery, and why bad things, just like buses, always seem to happen in threes. Whether you have a degree in astrophysics or havent touched a math problem since high school, this book sends you on a fascinating journey through the logic of life where Newtons laws explain bar fights, exploding rabbit populations, and why showers always run either too hot or too cold. Why Do Buses Come in Threes? is a delightfully entertaining ride that reveals the relevance of math in absolutely everything we do.
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$6.99 |
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This book unravels the mystery of Geometry in Origami with a unique approach: 64 Polyhedra designs, each made from a single square sheet of paper, no cuts, no glue; each polyhedron the largest possible from the starting size of square and each having an ingenious locking mechanism to hold its shape. The author covers the five Platonic solids (cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron and dodecahedron). There are ample variations with different color patterns and sunken sides. Dipyramids and Dimpled Dipyramids, unexplored before this in Origami, are also covered.
There are a total of 64 models in the book. All the designs have an interesting look and a pleasing folding sequence and are based on unique mathematical equations.
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$23.96 |
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How can linkages, pieces of paper, and polyhedra be folded? The authors present hundreds of results and over 60 unsolved 'open problems' in this comprehensive look at the mathematics of folding, with an emphasis on algorithmic or computational aspects. Folding and unfolding problems have been implicit since Albrecht Dürer in the early 1500s, but have only recently been studied in the mathematical literature. Over the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in these problems, with applications ranging from robotics to protein folding. A proof shows that it is possible to design a series of jointed bars moving only in a flat plane that can sign a name or trace any other algebraic curve. One remarkable algorithm shows you can fold any straight-line drawing on paper so that the complete drawing can be cut out with one straight scissors cut. Aimed primarily at advanced undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics or computer science, this lavishly illustrated book will fascinate a broad audience, from high school students to researchers.
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$33.96 |
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(5.0 / 5.0) The entire collection of Martin Gardner's Scientific American columns on one searchable CD! Martin Gardner’s “Mathematical Games” column ran in Scientific American from 1956 to 1986. In these columns Gardner introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the delights of mathematics and of puzzles and problem solving. His column broke such stories as Rivest, Shamir and Adelman on public-key cryptography, Mandelbrot on fractals, Conway on Life, and Penrose on tilings. He enlivened classic geometry and number theory and introduced readers to new areas such as combinatorics and graph theory. The CD contains the following books: 1. Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions 2. The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions 3. New Mathematical Diversions 4. The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions 5. Martin Gardner’s 6th Book of Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American 6. Mathematical Carnival 7. Mathematical Magic Show 8. Mathematical Circus 9. The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix 10. Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements 11. Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainers 12. Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments 13. Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers 14. Fractal Music, Hypercards, and more Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American 15. The Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications. A profile and interview with Martin Gardner is included in this collection
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$67.95 |
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 (4.0 / 5.0) Ravi Vakil, described in the San Francisco Chronicle as a legend in the world of math competitions has finally released his long-awaited second edition of A Mathematical Mosaic: Patterns & Problem Solving. Regarded by many as a seminal book in the field of mathematics competitions, the first edition of A Mathematical Mosaic has received wide acclaim from mathematics teachers, professors and the mathematics community at large. In the pages of this book, Ravi shares what mathematics is really about: beauty, elegance, and the discovery of deep and interconnected patterns. These patterns of nature are often best understood through puzzles and problems, both easy and hard. He also profiles eleven other Olympiad winners including Noam Elkies, the youngest professor to receive tenure at Harvard. This book is a must for teachers seeking to challenge their best students, and for students preparing for mathematics competitions.
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$19.95 |