David Wells

Games and Mathematics

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

A fascinating and entertaining tour of the connections, old and new, between mathematics and games. Rules, tactics and strategy of familiar games such as chess are all considered with a mathematical eye. The author then turns this around and shows how game playing can inform the thinking of mathematicians themselves.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 258
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. Oktober 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 14mm
• Gewicht: 420g
• ISBN-13: 9781107690912
• ISBN-10: 1107690919
• Artikelnr.: 35579395

Autorenporträt

David Wells is the author of more than a dozen books on popular mathematics, puzzles and recreations. He has written many articles on mathematics teaching and a secondary mathematics course based on problem-solving. A former British under-21 chess champion, he has also worked as a game inventor and puzzle editor.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction; Part I. Mathematical recreations and abstract games: 1. Recreations from Euler to Lucas; 2. Four abstract games; 3. Mathematics and games: mysterious connections; 4. Why chess is not mathematics; 5. Proving versus checking; Part II. Mathematics: game-like, scientific and perceptual: 6. Game-like mathematics; 7. Euclid and the rules of his geometrical game; 8. New concepts and new objects; 9. Convergent and divergent series; 10. Mathematics becomes game-like; 11. Maths as science; 12. Numbers and sequences; 13. Computers and mathematics; 14. Mathematics and the sciences; 15. Minimum paths from Heron to Feynmann; 16. The foundations: perception, imagination and insight; 17. Structure; 18. Hidden structure, common structure; 19. Mathematics and beauty; 20. Origins: formality in the everyday world; Bibliography; Index.

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Introduction
Part I. Mathematical recreations and abstract games: 1. Recreations from Euler to Lucas
2. Four abstract games
3. Mathematics and games: mysterious connections
4. Why chess is not mathematics
5. Proving versus checking
Part II. Mathematics: game-like, scientific and perceptual: 6. Game-like mathematics
7. Euclid and the rules of his geometrical game
8. New concepts and new objects
9. Convergent and divergent series
10. Mathematics becomes game-like
11. Maths as science
12. Numbers and sequences
13. Computers and mathematics
14. Mathematics and the sciences
15. Minimum paths from Heron to Feynmann
16. The foundations: perception, imagination and insight
17. Structure
18. Hidden structure, common structure
19. Mathematics and beauty
20. Origins: formality in the everyday world
Bibliography
Index.

Rezensionen

'One of the wellsprings out of which the discipline of mathematics has developed is human delight in intellectual play, manifest in the ubiquity of abstract games across millennia and cultures. The author of this fascinating book is expert in both domains, and in the art of clearly explaining significant aspects of mathematics in ways both accessible to non-experts and illuminating to experts. Through a delightfully rich variety of historical and multicultural examples, he unveils the intimate relationship between abstract games and mathematics as the study of structures, and, in so doing, illuminates much more about mathematical behaviour and cognition. At a time when too much of mathematics education in school seems designed to squeeze out every last drop of playfulness, we are reminded that mathematics can, and should, be an intellectual playground.' Brian Greer, Portland State University