Description
Book SynopsisWhat is so special about the number 30? How many colors are needed to color a map? Do the prime numbers go on forever? And are there more whole numbers than even numbers? This title explores these and other mathematical puzzles. It leads the reader into some of the fundamental ideas of mathematics, the ideas that make the subject interesting.
Trade Review"A thoroughly enjoyable sampler of fascinating mathematical problems and their solutions."--Science "Each chapter is a gem of mathematical exposition... [The book] will not only stretch the imagination of the amateur, but it will also give pleasure to the sophisticated mathematician."--American Mathematical Monthly
Table of ContentsPreface v Introduction 5 1. The Sequence of Prime Numbers 9 2. Traversing Nets of Curves 13 3. Some Maximum Problems 17 4. Incommensurable Segments and Irrational Numbers 22 5. A Minimum Property of the Pedal Triangle 27 6. A Second Proof of the Same Minimum Property 30 7. The Theory of Sets 34 8. Some Combinatorial Problems 43 9. On Waring's Problem 52 10. On Closed Self-Intersecting Curves 61 11. Is the Factorization of a Number into Prime Factors Unique?66 12. The Four-Color Problem 73 13. The Regular Polyhedrons 82 14. Pythagorean Numbers and Fermat's Theorem 88 15. The Theorem of the Arithmetic and Geometric Means 95 16. The Spanning Circle of a Finite Set of Points 103 17. Approximating Irrational Numbers by Means of Rational Numbers ill 18. Producing Rectilinear Motion by Means of Linkages 119 19. Perfect Numbers 129 20. Euler's Proof of the Infinitude of the Prime Numbers 135 21. Fundamental Principles of Maximum Problems 139 22. The Figure of Greatest Area with a Given Perimeter 142 23. Periodic Decimal Fractions 147 24. A Characteristic Property of the Circle 160 25. Curves of Constant Breadth 163 26. The Indispensability of the Compass for the Constructions of Elementary Geometry 177 27. A Property of the Number 30 187 28. An Improved Inequality 192 Notes and Remarks 197
