Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning [Two Volumes in One]

Author: George Polya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781614275572
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
2014 Reprint of 1954 American Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This two volume classic comprises two titles: "Patterns of Plausible Inference" and "Induction and Analogy in Mathematics." This is a guide to the practical art of plausible reasoning, particularly in mathematics, but also in every field of human activity. Using mathematics as the example par excellence, Polya shows how even the most rigorous deductive discipline is heavily dependent on techniques of guessing, inductive reasoning, and reasoning by analogy. In solving a problem, the answer must be guessed at before a proof can be given, and guesses are usually made from a knowledge of facts, experience, and hunches. The truly creative mathematician must be a good guesser first and a good prover afterward; many important theorems have been guessed but no proved until much later. In the same way, solutions to problems can be guessed, and a god guesser is much more likely to find a correct solution. This work might have been called "How to Become a Good Guesser."-From the Dust Jacket.

Mathematics by Experiment

Author: Jonathan Borwein
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439865361
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Book Description
This revised and updated second edition maintains the content and spirit of the first edition and includes a new chapter, "Recent Experiences", that provides examples of experimental mathematics that have come to light since the publication of the first edition in 2003. For more examples and insights, Experimentation in Mathematics: Computational P

Street-Fighting Mathematics

Author: Sanjoy Mahajan
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262265591
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Book Description
An antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems. Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 2

Author: G. Polya
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400823722
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Book Description
A guide to the practical art of plausible reasoning, this book has relevance in every field of intellectual activity. Professor Polya, a world-famous mathematician from Stanford University, uses mathematics to show how hunches and guesses play an important part in even the most rigorously deductive science. He explains how solutions to problems can be guessed at; good guessing is often more important than rigorous deduction in finding correct solutions. Vol. II, on Patterns of Plausible Inference, attempts to develop a logic of plausibility. What makes some evidence stronger and some weaker? How does one seek evidence that will make a suspected truth more probable? These questions involve philosophy and psychology as well as mathematics.

Concepts of Modern Mathematics

Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486134954
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
In this charming volume, a noted English mathematician uses humor and anecdote to illuminate the concepts of groups, sets, subsets, topology, Boolean algebra, and other mathematical subjects. 200 illustrations.

Patterns of Plausible Inference

Author: George Pólya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691080062
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Principia Mathematica

Author: Alfred North Whitehead
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Logic, Symbolic and mathematical
Languages : en
Pages : 688

Book Description

Mathematical Discovery on Understanding, Learning, and Teaching Problem Solving

Author: George Pólya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9784871878319
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
George Polya was a Hungarian mathematician. Born in Budapest on 13 December 1887, his original name was Polya Gyorg. He wrote perhaps the most famous book of mathematics ever written, namely "How to Solve It." However, "How to Solve It" is not strictly speaking a math book. It is a book about how to solve problems of any kind, of which math is just one type of problem. The same techniques could in principle be used to solve any problem one encounters in life (such as how to choose the best wife ). Therefore, Polya wrote the current volume to explain how the techniques set forth in "How to Solve It" can be applied to specific areas such as geometry.

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 1

Author: G. Polya
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691218307
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
A guide to the practical art of plausible reasoning, this book has relevance in every field of intellectual activity. Professor Polya, a world-famous mathematician from Stanford University, uses mathematics to show how hunches and guesses play an important part in even the most rigorously deductive science. He explains how solutions to problems can be guessed at; good guessing is often more important than rigorous deduction in finding correct solutions. Vol. I, on Induction and Analogy in Mathematics, covers a wide variety of mathematical problems, revealing the trains of thought that lead to solutions, pointing out false bypaths, discussing techniques of searching for proofs. Problems and examples challenge curiosity, judgment, and power of invention.

The Quantum of Explanation

Author: Randall E. Auxier
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351792482
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description
The Quantum of Explanation advances a bold new theory of how explanation ought to be understood in philosophical and cosmological inquiries. Using a complete interpretation of Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophical and mathematical writings and an interpretive structure that is essentially new, Auxier and Herstein argue that Whitehead has never been properly understood, nor has the depth and breadth of his contribution to the human search for knowledge been assimilated by his successors. This important book effectively applies Whitehead’s philosophy to problems in the interpretation of science, empirical knowledge, and nature. It develops a new account of philosophical naturalism that will contribute to the current naturalism debate in both Analytic and Continental philosophy. Auxier and Herstein also draw attention to some of the most important differences between the process theology tradition and Whitehead’s thought, arguing in favor of a Whiteheadian naturalism that is more or less independent of theological concerns. This book offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to Whitehead’s philosophy and is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in American philosophy, the philosophy of mathematics and physics, and issues associated with naturalism, explanation and radical empiricism.