100
Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics
By Heinrich Dorrie
Publisher: Dover Publications
Number Of Pages: 393
Publication Date: 1965-06-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0486613488
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780486613482
Book Description
Problems that beset Archimedes, Newton, Euler, Cauchy, Gauss, Monge and other greats, ready to challenge today's would-be problem solvers. Among them: How is a sundial constructed? How can you calculate the logarithm of a given number without the use of logarithm table? No advanced math is required. Includes 100 problems with proofs.
Summary: 100 Mathematical Triumphs of Genius
100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics is such a goldmine of ingenuity that it is hard to comprehend how it could be sold for so low a price. Ten dollars is practically a steal.
This publication, which was translated into English back in 1965, is a concise summary of some of the greatest works of mathematics throughout mankind's history. The problems contained are quite challenging. Many are such that if you understood any one of them, then you would probably know something that even the best math professor nearest you would not. This may sound like an overstatement, but in a day and age where some PhD's in math have either forgotten or never really learned how to determine so little as the square root of a number by just pencil and paper, it is probably not.
It is from analyzing the book's passages of Bernoulli's Power Sum Problem that I was able to achieve a great mathematical triumph after discovering the following challenge found in William Dunham's The Mathematical Universe: determining a precise mathematical formula to figure out how Jakob Bernoulli could take all the positive integers from 1 to 1000, raise each of them to the tenth power, and then add them up to where the sum came up to over 30 digits! I tried to develop algorithms that would work but failed each time, until I, once again, read this volume.
The situations presented are quite difficult to grasp, but once you get to where you know how to apply any one of them in solving mathematical puzzles, you feel elated. I know I did.
For the individual who enjoys looking at mathematics in a historical context and who wants to approach problems that are perhaps not entirely solvable with the use of the calculator and/or the computer, I recommend this book.
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