The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity (The MIT Press) by Sanjoy Mahajan (PDF)

Description

Tools to make hard problems easier to solve.In this book, Sanjoy Mahajan shows us that the way to master complexity is through insight rather than precision. Precision can overwhelm us with information, whereas insight connects seemingly disparate pieces of information into a simple picture. Unlike computers, humans depend on insight. Based on the author’s fifteen years of teaching at MIT, Cambridge University, and Olin College, The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering shows us how to build insight and find understanding, giving readers tools to help them solve any problem in science and engineering.To master complexity, we can organize it or discard it. The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering first teaches the tools for organizing complexity, then distinguishes the two paths for discarding complexity: with and without loss of information. Questions and problems throughout the text help readers master and apply these groups of tools. Armed with this three-part toolchest, and without complicated mathematics, readers can estimate the flight range of birds and planes and the strength of chemical bonds, understand the physics of pianos and xylophones, and explain why skies are blue and sunsets are red.The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review This book is definitely worth adding to your reading list.—Science—The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering is a wonderful and fun book that fills a gap in existing science curricula.—Physics Today—[A]n inspiring though racy (some might even call it dangerous) book.—Mathematical Association of America—…a glorious range of examples…a very ambitious and very impressive book.—American Journal of Physics— Review This accessible and fun book teaches the most important skills that a student of science or engineering can master.―David MacKay FRS, Regius Professor of Engineering, University of Cambridge; author of Sustainable Energy–Without the Hot Air About the Author Sanjoy Mahajan is Associate Professor of Applied Science and Engineering at Olin College of Engineering and Visiting Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the physics faculty. He is the author of Street-Fighting Mathematics: The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving (MIT Press). Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Enjoyed the author’s street fighting math course at MIT (online). This book lends similar insight to approaching complex (messy) problems.

⭐This is a long over due book – it is fantastic. The titles of many books are just hype, not this one. It promises insights and it delivers – on every page. The problems are well thought out and should definitely be attempted. The different methods to handle complexity are used to attack the same problem. That’s serves to verify the solutions reached. This book is worth it – buy it and invest the time studying it – you will be rewarded.

⭐I found this book to be a pleasant general review of physics. The approach is creative and it covers some advanced topics like Quantum Mechanics very intuitively however, to reap the full benefit, the reader’s physics and math background should be in reasonable shape and should be willing to invest some time and effort in solving the problems.

⭐I bought the Kindle ebook edition and the book ended at chapter 2. The layout and formatting were atrocious with words run together, bad fonts, and very bad layout. Not sure if this was due to the ebook or the Kindle device. I ended up deleting it from my Amazon cloud account so lost $9.99 because I could not download it from the source without buying it again. Given the 5 stars it got from 11 readers it is possible the content is fine but a lot of work needs to be done to ensure the complete book is delivered to a buyer’s account and the formatting of the book made compatible with Kindle devices.

⭐This book is a gem!It is written for everyone,and it expands my curiosity about classical physics in a way that is unimaginable.

⭐This book is a delight!It has an unorthodox and very efficient approach to physics. It is reminiscent of how the great Richard Feynman taught physics. I do not hesitate to mention Sanjoy Mahajan and Richard Feynman in the same sentence because when it comes to explaining physics, they are in the same league. Of course, when it comes to making important contributions to Quantum Electrodynamics and winning Nobel Prizes the comparison breaks down. Yet, that is so far out of anyone’s reach, that it is completely irrelevant here.Back to the book.To get an impression of Sanjoy Mahajan’s approach to physics and his talent for applying it to the everyday world, take a look at the TEDx presentation he gave at Caltech in 2011:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CdbBHzw8yQCaltech, the institute where Feynman taught his famous Lectures on Physics that were immortalized in the three-part red bible that every physics student on the planet cherishes.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465023827Five solid stars: QEDCaltech, the institute where Sanjoy Mahajan got his PhD in 1998. The topic was ‘Order of Magnitude Physics’ and it was clearly a precursor to the current book and also his previous book: Street-Fighting Mathematics:http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighting-Mathematics-Educated-Guessing-Opportunistic/dp/026251429XLast summer, I had the privilege to sit in the back of the lecture room at MIT where Sanjoy Mahajan gave the first lecture of an ‘experimental’ summer course. That was such a delight that I wished I was young again, and enrolled in the MIT Physics program. Unless someone invents a time machine (better hurry because time is running out!) that is not going to happen. Fortunately, there is ‘The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering’.A physics book like this appears only once every decade.Buy it, read it, and enjoy it.– Dap Hartmann

⭐Welcome to Sanjoy Mahajan’s magic show and school of wizardry. Be entertained and informed as Professor Mahajan teaches you how to weave straw into gold.Fifty years ago, Polya created the classic text in problem solving. “How to solve it” has sold millions of copies and is translated into 20 or so languages. Polya’s four basic principles are: understand the problem; devise a plan; carry out the plan; and look back. This approach, with its many embedded questions and strategies is an excellent starting point.Professor Mahajan has succeeded in producing an impressive and inspiring sequel to Polya’s masterpiece. His synthesis and organizational structure of how to approach problem solving will impact everyone who is fortunate enough to actively read this. (N.B. Active reading implies responding to the many probing questions that Mahajan poses.)As a quick tease, I can summarize Mahajan’s approach. Given a complex problem, you can either organize it through a divide & conquer approach or create an abstraction of that problem. Alternatively, you can discard the complexity by subscribing to some general approaches like symmetry or proportional reasoning, or dimensional analysis. If you wish, you can circumvent the complexity and still make headway by availing yourself of techniques like probabilistic reasoning, lumping or solving easier special cases.Sanjoy Mahajan has taken the tools that many expert problem solvers use and created a structure that makes them cohesive. He provides compelling examples and helps us practice these approaches. However, as with any artistic endeavor, problem solving requires creativity in addition to technique.My hope is that this book and approach to problem solving will also positively influence society in general and science education in particular. This parallels Prof Mahajan’s hope, “May the tools in this book help you advance our world beyond the state in which my generation has left it.”

⭐Great approach to solving problems through the overview rather than an attention to detail. But ultimately I found this frustrating. It reads like a university course which has been written down (which it is) rather than the inspiring book which I had hoped for. Some of the examples chosen don’t serve the cause well, and would be solved far more simply by more orthodox methods. But if you are prepared to work through it, there is still a lot here, especially for less experienced readers, who have yet to develop this kind of approach for themselves.

⭐This book is a masterpiece, as is his earlier book: “Street-fighting mathematics”. All students of Science and Engineering (undergrad, grad, post-grad, prof) will benefit from it.

⭐The ebook file is broken. It is badly formated and ends abruotly in chapter 2. Please fix it.The contents is great thow.

⭐Je connaissais Street-Fighting Mathematics du même auteur. Je suis assez déçu par celui-ci: rien de vraiment nouveau. De manière plus positive: le second est aussi bon que le premier, mais il suffit d’en lire un des deux :-).

⭐

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