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What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods
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What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods Paperback - 1996 - 2nd Edition

by Richard Courant; Herbert Robbins; Revised by Ian Stewart

The teaching and learning of mathematics has degenerated into the realm of rote memorization, the outcome of which leads to satisfactory formal ability but not real understanding or greater intellectual independence. The new edition of this classic work seeks to address this problem. Its goal is to put the meaning back into mathematics. "Lucid . . . easily understandable".--Albert Einstein. 301 linecuts.

From the rear cover

Written for beginners and scholars, for students and teachers, for philosophers and engineers, What is Mathematics? is a sparkling collection of mathematical gems that offers an entertaining and accessible portrait of the mathematical world. Brought up to date with a new chapter by Ian Stewart, this second edition offers new insights into recent mathematical developments and describes proofs of the Four-Color Theorem and Fermat's Last Theorem, problems that were still open when Courant and Robbins wrote this masterpiece, but ones that have since been solved.

Details

  • Title What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods
  • Author Richard Courant; Herbert Robbins; Revised by Ian Stewart
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition number 2nd
  • Edition 2
  • Pages 592
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Oxford University Press, USA, NY
  • Date 1996-07-18
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
  • ISBN 9780195105193 / 0195105192
  • Weight 1.7 lbs (0.77 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.02 x 6.05 x 1.06 in (22.91 x 15.37 x 2.69 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Mathematics
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 95053803
  • Dewey Decimal Code 510

About the author

The late Richard Courant, headed the Department of Mathematics at New York University and was Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences--which has subsequently renamed the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. His book Mathematical Physics is familiar to every physicist, and his book Differential and Integral Calculus is acknowledged to be one of the best presentations of the subject written in modern times. Herbert Robbins is New Jersey Professor of Mathematical Statistics at Rutgers University. Ian Stewart is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick, and author of Nature's Numbers and Does God Play Dice?. He also writes the "Mathematical Recreations" column in Scientific American.

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