The Art of Mathematics: Coffee Time in Memphis by Béla Bollobás (PDF)

Description

Can a Christian escape from a lion? How quickly can a rumor spread? Can you fool an airline into accepting oversize baggage? Recreational mathematics is full of frivolous questions where the mathematician’s art can be brought to bear. But play often has a purpose. In mathematics, it can sharpen skills, provide amusement, or simply surprise, and books of problems have been the stock-in-trade of mathematicians for centuries. This collection is designed to be sipped from, rather than consumed in one sitting. The questions range in difficulty: the most challenging offer a glimpse of deep results that engage mathematicians today; even the easiest prompt readers to think about mathematics. All come with solutions, many with hints, and most with illustrations. Whether you are an expert, or a beginner or an amateur mathematician, this book will delight for a lifetime.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The Author considers these problems to be the type that two mathematical friends would pose to each other and discuss over a cup of coffee in a lounge. I agree with that premise, they are not too hard and there is a proof that is relatively easy to discover and even easier to understand. These problems satisfy all of the requirements for a good problem…” Journal of Recreational Mathematics Book Description A collection of mathematical problems chosen to illustrate the mathematician’s art. About the Author Béla Bollobás is a Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge and is the Jabie Hardin Chair of Excellence in Combinatorics at the University of Memphis. He has held visiting positions from Seattle to Singapore, from Brazil to Zurich. This is his tenth book. Read more

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

⭐Great problems, but a mixed bag. Some are classics. Some are so difficult that it will be a rare reader who can solve them. I’ve only solved a few so far, but I’ve enjoyed thinking about a lot of them

⭐many interesting problems… most of them are combinatorial and there are some analysis/topology as well. However, many topological problems can now be found in topological textbooks.

⭐Back in the days when I was a mathematician I remember taking part in many coffee room discussions with problems similar to the ones found in this book. Sometimes problems like these arise from a detail of a concrete problem that a mathematician is working on, and other times the coffee room problem comes first and turns into something much bigger and deeper than it first appeared.A good coffee room problem is one whose statement can be understood by all present (from the lowliest honours student upwards) so that everyone can take part in thinking about the solution without needing specialised knowledge. The problem should also be hard enough to keep everyone occupied for a while and should be more profound than it looks.This book is a collection of such problems. The book is divided into three sections: problems, hints and solutions. Even if you can’t solve a given problem, just the act of working on it for a few minutes, hours or days (depending on your stamina) before checking the answer still gives you a lot of insight into the problem and a great deal of enjoyment. The solutions often go deeper than just the original problem. For example, the first problem of the book about a lion chasing a christian in a circular arena turns out to be quite a famous problem that has been generalised to higher dimensions, different types of arenas and greater numbers of lions!So you won’t be forced to give up on all of them, some of the problems are much easier than others, but all will get you thinking. Although many are even accessible to the advanced high school student, a fair bit more sophistication is often required, particularly to fully appreciate the solutions. I believe Bollobas intended his primary audience to be the type of people you might meet at a university mathematics department coffee room, but it is also perfect for lapsed mathematicians like me who still remember enough mathematics to tackle this book. In this sense I found it a real nostalgia trip.

⭐The book contains surprinsingly deep insights in very short proofs. Recommanded to anyone loving mathematics.

⭐I bought this at the request of my 18y daughter after she read the free sample, who has just started her first year of a degree in Mathematics and Computer Sciences. She is going to use one of the ideas in the book for a uni project.

⭐Great book (husband bought another for his father after enjoying it himself).

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