"The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.

Linear evolution equations in Banach spaces have seen important developments in the last two decades. This is due to the many different applications in the theory of partial differential equations, probability theory, mathematical physics, and other areas, and also to the development of new techniques. One important technique is given by the Laplace transform. It played an important role in the early development of semigroup theory, as can be seen in the pioneering monograph by Rille and Phillips [HP57]. But many new results and concepts have come from Laplace transform techniques in the last 15 years. In contrast to the classical theory, one particular feature of this method is that functions with values in a Banach space have to be considered. The aim of this book is to present the theory of linear evolution equations in a systematic way by using the methods of vector-valued Laplace transforms. It is simple to describe the basic idea relating these two subjects. Let A be a closed linear operator on a Banach space X. The Cauchy problern defined by A is the initial value problern (t 2 0), (CP) {u'(t) = Au(t) u(O) = x, where x E X is a given initial value. If u is an exponentially bounded, continuous function, then we may consider the Laplace transform 00 u(>. ) = 1 e-). . tu(t) dt of u for large real>. .

“Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read . . ." —Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer? How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God. Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

This third volume of problems from the William Lowell Putnam Competition is unlike the previous two in that it places the problems in the context of important mathematical themes. The authors highlight connections to other problems, to the curriculum and to more advanced topics. The best problems contain kernels of sophisticated ideas related to important current research, and yet the problems are accessible to undergraduates. The solutions have been compiled from the American Mathematical Monthly, Mathematics Magazine and past competitors. Multiple solutions enhance the understanding of the audience, explaining techniques that have relevance to more than the problem at hand. In addition, the book contains suggestions for further reading, a hint to each problem, separate from the full solution and background information about the competition. The book will appeal to students, teachers, professors and indeed anyone interested in problem solving as a gateway to a deep understanding of mathematics.