General Books

Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks

Arthur Benjamin, Michael Shermer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

These simple math secrets and tricks will forever change how you look at the world of numbers.

Secrets of Mental Math will have you thinking like a math genius in no time. Get ready to amaze your friends—and yourself—with incredible calculations you never thought you could master, as renowned “mathemagician” Arthur Benjamin shares his techniques for lightning-quick calculations and amazing number tricks. This book will teach you to do math in your head faster than you ever thought possible, dramatically improve your memory for numbers, and—maybe for the first time—make mathematics fun.

Yes, even you can learn to do seemingly complex equations in your head; all you need to learn are a few tricks. You’ll be able to quickly multiply and divide triple digits, compute with fractions, and determine squares, cubes, and roots without blinking an eye. No matter what your age or current math ability, Secrets of Mental Math will allow you to perform fantastic feats of the mind effortlessly. This is the math they never taught you in school.



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Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin

Lawrence Weinstein, John A. Adam

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton University Press Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $11.84

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Science, Nature & How It Works -> Math -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Instruction Method -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Instruction Method -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Guesstimation is a book that unlocks the power of approximation--it's popular mathematics rounded to the nearest power of ten! The ability to estimate is an important skill in daily life. More and more leading businesses today use estimation questions in interviews to test applicants' abilities to think on their feet. Guesstimation enables anyone with basic math and science skills to estimate virtually anything--quickly--using plausible assumptions and elementary arithmetic.

Lawrence Weinstein and John Adam present an eclectic array of estimation problems that range from devilishly simple to quite sophisticated and from serious real-world concerns to downright silly ones. How long would it take a running faucet to fill the inverted dome of the Capitol? What is the total length of all the pickles consumed in the US in one year? What are the relative merits of internal-combustion and electric cars, of coal and nuclear energy? The problems are marvelously diverse, yet the skills to solve them are the same. The authors show how easy it is to derive useful ballpark estimates by breaking complex problems into simpler, more manageable ones--and how there can be many paths to the right answer. The book is written in a question-and-answer format with lots of hints along the way. It includes a handy appendix summarizing the few formulas and basic science concepts needed, and its small size and French-fold design make it conveniently portable. Illustrated with humorous pen-and-ink sketches, Guesstimation will delight popular-math enthusiasts and is ideal for the classroom.

Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life (Princeton Studies in Complexity)

John H. Miller, Scott E. Page

Amazon Price: $65.00 List Price: $65.00 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Princeton University Press Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $28.72

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Social Theory
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book provides the first clear, comprehensive, and accessible account of complex adaptive social systems, by two of the field's leading authorities. Such systems--whether political parties, stock markets, or ant colonies--present some of the most intriguing theoretical and practical challenges confronting the social sciences. Engagingly written, and balancing technical detail with intuitive explanations, Complex Adaptive Systems focuses on the key tools and ideas that have emerged in the field since the mid-1990s, as well as the techniques needed to investigate such systems. It provides a detailed introduction to concepts such as emergence, self-organized criticality, automata, networks, diversity, adaptation, and feedback. It also demonstrates how complex adaptive systems can be explored using methods ranging from mathematics to computational models of adaptive agents.

John Miller and Scott Page show how to combine ideas from economics, political science, biology, physics, and computer science to illuminate topics in organization, adaptation, decentralization, and robustness. They also demonstrate how the usual extremes used in modeling can be fruitfully transcended.

How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (Princeton Science Library)

G. Polya

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A perennial bestseller by eminent mathematician G. Polya, How to Solve It will show anyone in any field how to think straight.

In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be "reasoned" out--from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Polya's deft--indeed, brilliant--instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of the problem.

In this best-selling classic, George Pólya revealed how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be "reasoned" out--from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Pólya's deft instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of a problem. How to Solve It popularized heuristics, the art and science of discovery and invention. It has been in print continuously since 1945 and has been translated into twenty-three different languages.

Pólya was one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century. He made important contributions to a great variety of mathematical research: from complex analysis to mathematical physics, number theory, probability, geometry, astronomy, and combinatorics. He was also an extraordinary teacher--he taught until he was ninety--and maintained a strong interest in pedagogical matters throughout his long career. In addition to How to Solve It, he published a two-volume work on the topic of problem solving, Mathematics of Plausible Reasoning, also with Princeton.

Pólya is one of the most frequently quoted mathematicians, and the following statements from How to Solve It make clear why: "My method to overcome a difficulty is to go around it." "Geometry is the science of correct reasoning on incorrect figures." "In order to solve this differential equation you look at it till a solution occurs to you."

MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications

Amos Gilat

List Price: $44.05 By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $1.71

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> General AAS
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Reader 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

If you plan to start with Matlab with no prior experience, this book beats most of the other available titles.Since an inside view of the book is not available on Amazon, I will for the benefit of others list out the chapters here.Ch1 begins with the necessary introduction,developing familiarity with the command window,display formats and precedence of operators.It moves on to Ch2 and Ch3 where arrays are introduced and the mathematical operations on them explained.Ch4 is about script files,Ch5 on elementary plotting techniques using in-built functions like plot and fplot.Ch6 introduces functions and Ch7 extends the previous material to formal programming techniques like loops and control structures.Ch8 explains curve fitting and interpolation,Ch9 is about three dimensional plots and special graphics.Ch10, the last one of the book uses Matlab to do symbolic math which cover elementary algebraic equations.The examples contained in the book are from elementary physics and engineering,so if you are looking for more advanced material that has been treated using Matlab,this might be a little less helpful.The numerical techniques again cover simple problems like projectile trajectory,flow of water from a vessel with a small hole punched in its sidewall,RC circuits, viscosity and so on.Relatively advanced topics like Fourier transforms and applications to signal processing are also left out.If you are done with this book or feel that the material isnt of much help, I will suggest that you might try "Numerical Computing with Matlab" by Moler(he is perhaps one of the architects of Matlab).This book(electronic version) is available for free from the mathworks website [...].Overall this book does a good job in explaining details and is also generously sprinkled with figures and screenshots.Please try it if you are first timer to Matlab.

Editorial Review:

• Assuming no prior MATLAB experience, this clear, easy-to-read book walks readers through the ins and outs of this powerful software for technical computing
• Generously illustrated through computer screen shots and step-by-step tutorials that are applied in the areas of mathematics, science, and engineering
• Clearly shows how MATLAB is used in science and engineering

A Survey of Mathematics With Applications

Allen R. Angel, Stuart R. Porter

List Price: $100.00 By: Addison Wesley Longman Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Need texbook, can obtain.... 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I received the book fairly quickly. The book was a little rough around the edges (advertised as good) and it is. The back outside spine was ripped and for that they could have drop the price a little more, but considering the price in the university book store was $118 (new), and $85 (used) - I could live with it. I believe that this is a fair assessment of the site. I would order a book from them again.

Editorial Review:

The sixth edition of this best-selling text balances solid mathematical coverage with a comprehensive overview of mathematical ideas as they relate to varied disciplines. This book provides an appreciation of mathematics, highlighting mathematical history, applications of mathematics to the arts and sciences across cultures, and introduces students to the uses of technology in mathematics. Exercise sets are now organized into Concept/Writing, Practice the Skills, Problem Solving, Challenge Problems/Group Activities, Research Activities. An updated Consumer Math section including updated material on sources of credit and mutual funds. Motivational, chapter-opening material demonstrates connections between math and various other disciplines. KEY MARKET For those who require a general overview of mathematics, especially in the fields of elementary education, the social sciences, business, nursing and allied health fields.

The Algorithm Design Manual

Steven S. Skiena

Amazon Price: $63.96 List Price: $79.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Springer Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $61.75

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Algorithms -> General AAS
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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

....The most comprehensive guide to designing practical and efficient algorithms!....

The Algorithm Design Manual, Second Edition

"...the book is an algorithm-implementation treasure trove, and putting all of these implementations in one place was no small feat. The list of implementations [and] extensive bibliography make the book an invaluable resource for everyone interested in the subject." --ACM Computing Reviews

"It has all the right ingredients: rich contents, friendly, personal language, subtle humor, the right references, and a plethora of pointers to resources." -- P. Takis Metaxas, Wellesley College

"This is the most approachable book on algorithms I have." -- Megan Squire, Elon University, USA

This newly expanded and updated second edition of the best-selling classic continues to take the "mystery" out of designing algorithms, and analyzing their efficacy and efficiency. Expanding on the first edition, the book now serves as the primary textbook of choice for algorithm design courses while maintaining its status as the premier practical reference guide to algorithms for programmers, researchers, and students.

The reader-friendly Algorithm Design Manual provides straightforward access to combinatorial algorithms technology, stressing design over analysis. The first part, Techniques, provides accessible instruction on methods for designing and analyzing computer algorithms. The second part, Resources, is intended for browsing and reference, and comprises the catalog of algorithmic resources, implementations and an extensive bibliography.

NEW to the second edition:

• Doubles the tutorial material and exercises over the first edition

• Provides full online support for lecturers, and a completely updated and improved website component with lecture slides, audio and video

• Contains a unique catalog identifying the 75 algorithmic problems that arise most often in practice, leading the reader down the right path to solve them

• Includes several NEW "war stories" relating experiences from real-world applications

• Provides up-to-date links leading to the very best algorithm implementations available in C, C++, and Java

ADDITIONAL Learning Tools:

• Exercises include "job interview problems" from major software companies

• Highlighted take-home lesson boxes emphasize essential concepts

• Provides comprehensive references to both survey articles and the primary literature

• Exercises points to relevant programming contest challenge problems

• Many algorithms presented with actual code (written in C) as well as pseudo-code

• A full set of lecture slides and additional material available at www.algorist.com

Written by a well-known algorithms researcher who received the IEEE Computer Science and Engineering Teaching Award, this new edition of The Algorithm Design Manual is an essential learning tool for students needing a solid grounding in algorithms, as well as a special text/reference for professionals who need an authoritative and insightful guide. Professor Skiena is also author of the popular Springer text, Programming Challenges: The Programming Contest Training Manual.

Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums

Julian Havil

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Subjects -> Science -> Mathematics -> Applied -> Probability & Statistics

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Nonplussed!, popular-math writer Julian Havil delighted readers with a mind-boggling array of implausible yet true mathematical paradoxes. Now Havil is back with Impossible?, another marvelous medley of the utterly confusing, profound, and unbelievable--and all of it mathematically irrefutable.

Whenever Forty-second Street in New York is temporarily closed, traffic doesn't gridlock but flows more smoothly--why is that? Or consider that cities that build new roads can experience dramatic increases in traffic congestion--how is this possible? What does the game show Let's Make A Deal reveal about the unexpected hazards of decision-making? What can the game of cricket teach us about the surprising behavior of the law of averages? These are some of the counterintuitive mathematical occurrences that readers encounter in Impossible?

Havil ventures further than ever into territory where intuition can lead one astray. He gathers entertaining problems from probability and statistics along with an eclectic variety of conundrums and puzzlers from other areas of mathematics, including classics of abstract math like the Banach-Tarski paradox. These problems range in difficulty from easy to highly challenging, yet they can be tackled by anyone with a background in calculus. And the fascinating history and personalities associated with many of the problems are included with their mathematical proofs. Impossible? will delight anyone who wants to have their reason thoroughly confounded in the most astonishing and unpredictable ways.

Thinking Mathematically

Robert F. Blitzer

Amazon Price: $104.53 List Price: $130.67 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 152 new & used starting at $52.45

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This general survey of mathematical topics helps a diverse audience, with different backgrounds and career plans, to understand mathematics. Blitzer provides the applications and technology readers need to gain an appreciation of mathematics in everyday life.

 

  Demonstrates how mathematics can be applied to readers’ lives in interesting, enjoyable, and meaningful ways. Features abundant, step-by-step, annotated Examplesthat provide a problem-solving approach to reach the solution; annotations are conversational in tone, explaining key steps and ideas as the problem is solved. Begins each section with a compelling vignette highlighting an everyday scenario, posing a question about it, and exploring how the chapter section subject can be applied to answer the question.

 

A highly readable reference for anyone who needs to brush up their mathematics skills.

An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits (Chapman & Hall/Crc Mathematical and Computational Biology)

Uri Alon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Job 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 26 people found this review helpful.

A superb intro to the field. The math is moderate and helpful. Network concepts and their ties to examples and theory are clearly and succinctly presented. This is a textbook but reads easily like a book. Covers key elements while connecting them by at least mention to up-to-date further research. The basics and the grandeur of systems biology. I am trying to remember now anything on the negative side and cannot.

Editorial Review:

Thorough and accessible, this book presents the design principles of biological systems, and highlights the recurring circuit elements that make up biological networks. It provides a simple mathematical framework which can be used to understand and even design biological circuits. The textavoids specialist terms, focusing instead on several well-studied biological systems that concisely demonstrate key principles.

An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits builds a solid foundation for the intuitive understanding of general principles. It encourages the reader to ask why a system is designed in a particular way and then proceeds to answer with simplified models.