Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning [Two Volumes in One]

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning [Two Volumes in One] PDF 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 and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 2

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 2 PDF 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.

Mathematics by Experiment

Mathematics by Experiment PDF 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

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 1

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Volume 1 PDF 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.

Street-Fighting Mathematics

Street-Fighting Mathematics PDF 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.

Famous Puzzles of Great Mathematicians

Famous Puzzles of Great Mathematicians PDF Author: Miodrag Petkovi_
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821848143
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Book Description
This entertaining book presents a collection of 180 famous mathematical puzzles and intriguing elementary problems that great mathematicians have posed, discussed, and/or solved. The selected problems do not require advanced mathematics, making this book accessible to a variety of readers. Mathematical recreations offer a rich playground for both amateur and professional mathematicians. Believing that creative stimuli and aesthetic considerations are closely related, great mathematicians from ancient times to the present have always taken an interest in puzzles and diversions. The goal of this book is to show that famous mathematicians have all communicated brilliant ideas, methodological approaches, and absolute genius in mathematical thoughts by using recreational mathematics as a framework. Concise biographies of many mathematicians mentioned in the text are also included. The majority of the mathematical problems presented in this book originated in number theory, graph theory, optimization, and probability. Others are based on combinatorial and chess problems, while still others are geometrical and arithmetical puzzles. This book is intended to be both entertaining as well as an introduction to various intriguing mathematical topics and ideas. Certainly, many stories and famous puzzles can be very useful to prepare classroom lectures, to inspire and amuse students, and to instill affection for mathematics.

Patterns of Plausible Inference

Patterns of Plausible Inference PDF Author: George Pólya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691080062
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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

Concepts of Modern Mathematics PDF 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.

Rethinking Economics as Social Theory

Rethinking Economics as Social Theory PDF Author: Richard E. Wagner
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1802204768
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Book Description
Taking an innovative look at the origins of economics, this forward-thinking book relocates economics from a materialistic general theory of rational action into an idealistic theory of social organization and individual action. Adding new insightful analytical methods such as complexity theory, graph theory and computational modelling to the original insights of the Scottish Enlightenment, Richard E. Wagner explores economics in an ever-changing society, looking at the key civilizing processes and the important social questions.

A Century in Books

A Century in Books PDF Author: Princeton University Press Staff
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691238170
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
It all began atop a drugstore in Princeton, New Jersey, in November 1905. From its modest beginnings, Princeton University Press was to become one of the world's most important scholarly publishers, embracing a wealth of disciplines that have enriched our cultural, academic, and scientific landscape. Both as a tribute to our authors and to celebrate our centenary, Princeton University Press here presents A Century in Books. This beautifully designed volume highlights 100 of the nearly 8,000 books we have published. Necessarily winnowed from a much larger list, these books best typify what has been most lasting, most defining, and most distinctive about our publishing history--from Einstein's The Meaning of Relativity (1922) to the numerous mathematical and other works that marked the Press's watershed decade of the 1940s, including von Neumann and Morgenstern's Theory of Games and Economic Behavior; from milestones of literary criticism by Erich Auerbach and Northop Frye to George Kennan's Pulitzer Prize-winning book on Soviet-American relations; from Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 to more recent landmarks such as L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, and Alberto Piazza's The History and Geography of Human Genes and Robert Shiller's Irrational Exuberance. In addition to succinct descriptions of the 100 titles and a short introduction on the history of the Press, the book features five essays by prominent scholars and writers: Michael Wood discusses the impact on Princeton University Press of intellectuals who fled Nazi Germany and authored many influential books. Anthony Grafton recounts our rich publishing tradition in history, politics, and culture. Sylvia Nasar traces our evolution into a leading voice in economics publishing. Daniel Kevles reflects on Einstein, a figure of special importance to Princeton. And Lord Robert May writes on our long-standing tradition of publishing in mathematics and science. A Century in Books is more than a celebration of 100 years of publishing at Princeton University Press--it is a treasure trove of 100 years of books that have added to the richness of twentieth-century intellectual life.
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