Powerful problem solving ideas that focus on the major branches of mathematics and their interconnections.

Ravi Vakil, a preeminent winner of International Mathematics Olympiads, develops some powerful problem-solving ideas underpinning the major branches of mathematics and weaves them into a mosaic that reveals their interconnections. The mathematics is presented at the level of the capable high school mathematics student, but there is much substance for the advanced undergraduate and the intelligent lay reader. You will find this book an invaluable source of enrichment problems and ideas. The style is informal, friendly, and often humorous. In this book, Professor Vakil profiles seven other mathematics olympiad winners including Noam Elkies, the youngest professor to achieve tenure at Harvard.--Publisher.

A collection of short detective stories for young adults who are interested in applying high school level mathematics and physics to solving mysteries. The main character is Ravi, a 14-year-old math genius who helps the local police solve cases. Each chapter is a detective story with a mathematical puzzle at its core that Ravi is able to solve. The

Polyominoes will delight not only students and teachers of mathematics at all levels, but will be appreciated by anyone who likes a good geometric challenge. There are no prerequisites. If you like jigsaw puzzles, or if you hate jigsaw puzzles but have ever wondered about the pattern of some floor tiling, there is much here to interest you. A polyomino is a shape cut along the lines from square graph paper; the pronunciation of polyomino begins as does polygon and ends as does domino. Tilings, also called tessellations of mosaic patterns, are older than civilization itself. Tiling with polyominoes provides challenges that range from the popular jigsaw-like puzzles to easily understood mathematical research problems. You will find unsolved puzzles and problems of both kinds here. Answers are provided for most of the problems that have known solutions. It is only fair to repeat here the warning stated in the preface to this book, "Playing with polyominoes can be habit forming."

Bosch provides a lively and accessible introduction to the geometric, algebraic, and algorithmic foundations of optimization. He presents classical applications, such as the legendary Traveling Salesman Problem, and shows how to adapt them to make optimization art--opt art. art.