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Paperback. Condizione: New. Keep your mind sharp all year long with Your Daily Epsilon of Math Wall Calendar 2024 featuring a new math problem every day and 13 beautiful math images! Let mathematicians Rebecca Rapoport and Dean Chung tickle the left side of your brain by providing you with a math challenge for every day of the year. The solution is always the date, but the fun lies in figuring out how to arrive at the answer, and possibly discovering more than one method of arriving there.Problems run the gamut from arithmetic through graduate level math. Some of the most tricky problems require only middle school math applied cleverly. With word problems, math puns, and interesting math definitions added into the mix, this calendar will intrigue you for the whole year.End the year with more brains than you had when it began with Your Daily Epsilon of Math Wall Calendar 2024.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This book contains four essays on expository writing of books and papers at the research level and at the level of graduate texts. The authors were the four members of the AMS Committee on Expository Writing.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians is a children's activity book highlighting the lives and work of 29 African American women mathematicians, including Dr. Christine Darden, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan from the award-winning book and movie Hidden Figures. It is a must-read for parents and children alike.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This volume is fourth in the much-acclaimed 'AMS' series, ""What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences"". The lively style and in-depth coverage of some of the most important 'happenings' in mathematics today make this publication a delightful and intriguing read accessible to a wide audience. High school students, professors, researchers, engineers, statisticians, computer scientists - anyone with an interest in mathematics - will find captivating material in this book. As we enter the 21st century, ""What's Happening"" presents the state of modern mathematics and its worldwide significance in a timely and enduring fashion.Featured articles include: 'From Wired to Weird', on advances that are encouraging research in quantum computation; 'A Prime Case of Chaos', on new connections between number theory and theoretical physics; 'Beetlemania: Chaos in Ecology', on new evidence for chaotic dynamics in an actual population; 'A Blue-Letter Day for Computer Chess', on the mathematics underlying Deep Blue's victory over Garry Kasparov; and, much more!

Paperback. Condizione: New. Topology is the field of mathematics that studies those properties of a shape which persist when the shape gently evolves and changes its specific form. This book gives a playful and intuitive introduction to topology, favoring simple and crisp illustrations over long explanations and formal definitions. The material includes some of the classic results one would see in undergraduate courses on topology and graph theory, but presents these results in a way that readers without any knowledge of mathematics will be able to understand.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This solutions manual is geared toward instructors for use as a companion volume to the book, A Modern Theory of Integration, (AMS Graduate Studies in Mathematics series, Volume 32).

Paperback. Condizione: New. This new volume of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences features a rich selection of articles about recent topics in pure and applied mathematics."Expanding Horizons" and "Needles in an Infinite Haystack" explain new developments in the theory of expander graphs and in number theory (asymptotic Fermat's last theorem), respectively. "The SetR Game Has Met Its Match" presents a solution of the so-called Cap Set Conjecture, a statement about arithmetic progressions in finite vector spaces, which resulted from the mathematical analysis of the popular game "Set"."The Shape of Data" and "Quantum Computers and Golden Gates" present recent advances in theoretical computer science and related areas of data science. The mathematical aspects of one of the most fascinating recent developments in general relativity, the discovery of gravitational waves, is discussed in "When Black Holes Collide".Three articles talk about applications of mathematical methods in various aspects of everyday life: bike-sharing systems and ride-sharing services (like Lyft and Uber) in "The Mathematics of Commuting", weight control in "The Calculus of Calories", and an analysis of various partisan election practices in "Gerrymandering: Mathematics on Trial".We anticipate that many readers will find an interesting topic to read about and, hopefully, more than one.

Paperback. Condizione: New. The ""AMS"" series ""What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences"" distills the amazingly rich brew of current research in mathematics down to a few choice samples. This volume leads off with an update on the Poincare Conjecture, a hundred-year-old problem that has apparently been solved by Grigory Perelman of St. Petersburg, Russia. So what did topologists do when the oldest and most famous problem about closed manifolds was vanquished? As the second chapter describes, they confronted a suite of problems concerning the 'ends' of open manifolds.and solved those, too. Not to be outdone, number theorists accomplished several unexpected feats in the first five years of the new century, from computing a trillion digits of pi to finding arbitrarily long equally-spaced sequences of prime numbers.Undergraduates made key discoveries, as explained in the chapters on Venn diagrams and primality testing. In applied mathematics, the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid mechanics continued to stir up interest. One team proved new theorems about the long-term evolution of vortices, while others explored the surprising ways that insects use vortices to move around. The random jittering of Brownian motion became a little less mysterious. Finally, an old and trusted algorithm of computer science had its trustworthiness explained in a novel way. Barry Cipra explains these new developments in his wry and witty style, familiar to readers of Volumes 1-5, and is joined in this volume by Dana Mackenzie. Volume 6 of ""What's Happening"" will convey to all readers - from mathematical novices to experts - the beauty and wonder that is mathematics.

Paperback. Condizione: New. The author surveys a wide collection of techniques for showing the existence of solutions to various nonlinear partial differential equations, especially when strong analytic estimates are unavailable. The overall guiding viewpoint is that when a sequence of approximate solutions converges only weakly, one must exploit the nonlinear structure of the PDE to justify passing to limits. The author concentrates on several areas that are rapidly developing and points to some underlying viewpoints common to them all. Among the several themes in the book are the primary role of measure theory and real analysis (as opposed to functional analysis) and the continual use in diverse settings of low-amplitude, high-frequency periodic test functions to extract useful information. The author uses the simplest problems possible to illustrate various key techniques. Aimed at research mathematicians in the field of nonlinear PDEs, this book should prove an important resource for understanding the techniques being used in this important area of research.

Paperback. Condizione: New. MATEMAX is a bilingual schoolbook of mathematical problems written with the premise that one of the fundamental ways of learning mathematics, in addition to being one of the goals of the subject, is to solve problems. The book is designed for children and young teens and aims to teach mathematics in an entertaining way. Problems are based on familiar everyday situations, and helpful hints guide students to develop strategies before diving into calculations, leading to practice in abstract thinking, an essential feature of mathematics. Presented in both English and Spanish it also provides equal access to students, parents and teachers with facility in either or both languages.

Paperback. Condizione: New. In the American Mathematical Society's first-ever book for kids (and kids at heart), mathematician and author Richard Evan Schwartz leads math lovers of all ages on an innovative and strikingly illustrated journey through the infinite number system. By means of engaging, imaginative visuals and endearing narration, Schwartz manages the monumental task of presenting the complex concept of Big Numbers in fresh and relatable ways. The book begins with small, easily observable numbers before building up to truly gigantic ones, like a nonillion, a tredecillion, a googol, and even ones too huge for names! Any person, regardless of age, can benefit from reading this book. Readers will find themselves returning to its pages for a very long time, perpetually learning from and growing with the narrative as their knowledge deepens. Really Big Numbers is a wonderful enrichment for any math education program and is enthusiastically recommended to every teacher, parent and grandparent, student, child, or other individual interested in exploring the vast universe of numbers.

Paperback. Condizione: New. November 11, 2002: Grigori Perelman, a famous mathematician, brilliantly establishes his proof of the Poincare Conjecture. A few years later, he is widely acclaimed for his research. However, he declines the prestigious Fields Medal and persists in not wanting to leave his native city of Saint Petersburg to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid in 2006 where the medal is supposed to be awarded. John Ball, the President of the International Mathematical Union, decided to visit Russia in an attempt to convince Perelman to accept the Fields Medal. This book contains the story, part real, part fictional, of the exchanges between Ball and Perelman. We are immersed in the tormented mind of a person who prefers the simple and secluded life to the prestige of his discoveries. We already know the final outcome of the story, Perelman's perpetual refusal to be glorified by the public, and yet there is still much to learn from this character of astonishing complexity.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This book is a unique teaching tool that takes math lovers on a journey designed to motivate kids (and kids at heart) to learn the fun of factoring and prime numbers. This volume visually explores the concepts of factoring and the role of prime and composite numbers. The playful and colorful monsters are designed to give children (and even older audiences) an intuitive understanding of the building blocks of numbers and the basics of multiplication. The introduction and appendices can also help adult readers answer questions about factoring from their young audience. The artwork is crisp and creative and the colors are bright and engaging, making this volume a welcome deviation from standard math texts.Any person, regardless of age, can profit from reading this book. Readers will find themselves returning to its pages for a very long time, continually learning from and getting to know the monsters as their knowledge expands. You Can Count on Monsters is a magnificent addition for any math education program and is enthusiastically recommended to every teacher, parent and grandparent, student, child, or other individual interested in exploring the visually fascinating world of the numbers 1 through 100.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This volume contains lectures from the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences meeting held at the University of Colorado on May 31-June 4, 1976. The lectures consist of an expository discussion of basic results for topological flows and a somewhat more detailed discussion of isolated invariant sets and continuation. The construction of the index for isolated invariant sets is new and allows more general application than previous ones. Also, the index itself is endowed with more structure and the continuation theorem is modified to take this new structure into account. Some elementary applications are given, but the main emphasis is on the abstract theory.

Paperback. Condizione: New. The soul of mathematics is the practice of skeptical inquiry: asking how and why things work, experimenting, exploring, and discovering. Estimation, analysis, computation, conjecture, and proof are the mathematical path to uncovering truth and we can use them in nearly every human pursuit. In this thoroughly charming and beguiling book, Shai Simonson applies mathematical tools in a variety of contexts that arise in everyday life to prove his claim that math is, literally, everywhere. Simonson applies his mathematical cast of mind to hiking, birthday parties, carnival games, lock picking, and kite flying. We see unexpected depths and connections when we look in the ""wrong"" places in the right way.No advanced mathematical knowledge is required to travel with Simonson and share in his investigations. All a reader needs is an open and curious mind, an eagerness to ask questions, and a willingness to think deeply and carefully about seemingly mundane things. There is wonder and joy in quotidian life with Simonson as your guide.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Second Edition. This volume is based on PDE courses given by the authors at the Courant Institute and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Presented are basic methods for obtaining various a priori estimates for second-order equations of elliptic type with particular emphasis on maximal principles, Harnack inequalities, and their applications. The equations considered in the book are linear; however, the presented methods also apply to nonlinear problems. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and in a new chapter the authors discuss several methods for proving the existence of solutions of primarily the Dirichlet problem for various types of elliptic equations.

Paperback. Condizione: New. What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences is a collection of articles highlighting some of the most recent developments in mathematics. These include important achievements in pure mathematics, as well as its fascinating applications.On the pure mathematics side, ``Prime Clusters and Gaps: Out-Experting the Experts'' talks about new insights into the distribution of prime numbers, the perpetual source of new problems, and new results. Recently, several mathematicians (including Yitang Zhang and James Maynard) significantly improved our knowledge of the distribution of prime numbers. Advances in the so-called Kadison-Singer problem and its applications in signal processing algorithms used to analyze and synthesize signals are described in ``The Kadison-Singer Problem: A Fine Balance''. ``Quod Erat Demonstrandum'' presents two examples of perseverance in mathematicians' pursuit of truth using, in particular, computers to verify their arguments. And ``Following in Sherlock Holmes' Bike Tracks'' shows how an episode in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes naturally led to very interesting problems and results in the theory of completely integrable systems.On the applied side, ``Climate Past, Present, and Future'' shows the importance of mathematics in the study of climate change and global warming phenomena. Mathematical models help researchers to understand the past, present, and future changes of climate, and to analyze their consequences. ``The Truth Shall Set Your Fee'' talks about algorithms of information exchange in cyberspace. Economists have known for a long time that trust is a cornerstone of commerce, and this becomes even more important nowadays when a lot of transactions, big and small, are done over the Internet. Recent efforts of theoretical computer scientists led to the development of so-called ``rational protocols'' for information exchange, where the parties in the information exchange process find that lies do not pay off.Over the last 100 years many professional mathematicians and devoted amateurs contributed to the problem of finding polygons that can tile the plane, e.g., used as floor tiles in large rooms and walls. Despite all of these efforts, the search is not yet complete, as the very recent discovery of a new plane-tiling pentagon shows in ``A Pentagonal Search Pays Off''. Mathematics can benefit coaches and players in some of the most popular team sports as shown in ``The Brave New World of Sports Analytics''. The increased ability to collect and process statistics, big data, or ``analytics'' has completely changed the world of sports analytics. The use of modern methods of statistical modeling allows coaches and players to create much more detailed game plans as well as create many new ways of measuring a player's value. Finally, ``Origami: Unfolding the Future'' talks about the ancient Japanese paper-folding art and origami's unexpected connections to a variety of areas including mathematic.

Paperback. Condizione: New. The AMS Page a Day Calendar is a collection of 366 mathematical morsels. Each day features a fun math fact, a tidbit of math history, a piece of art made using mathematics, a mathematical puzzle or activity, or another mathematical delight. Topics range from the serious to the silly, from the abstract to the very real. The calendar features mathematics done by people from different races, genders, geographic locations, and time periods. Anyone interested in mathematics will learn something new and have their imagination sparked by something they find in the calendar. It will be a mathematical companion for your year.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This book is based on selected topics that the authors taught in math circles for elementary school students at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Dominican University (Marin County, CA); and the University of Oregon (Eugene). It is intended for people who are already running a math circle or who are thinking about organizing one. It can be used by parents to help their motivated, math-loving kids or by elementary school teachers. We also hope that bright 4th- or 5th-graders will be able to read this book on their own.The main features of this book are the logical sequence of the problems, the description of class reactions, and the hints given for when the kids get stuck. This book tries to keep the balance between two goals: inspire readers to invent their own original approaches while being detailed enough to work as a fallback in case the teacher needs to prepare a lesson on short notice. Kids will be introduced to combinatorics, Fibonacci numbers, Pascal's triangle, and the notion of area, among other things. The authors chose topics with deep mathematical context that are part of the continuously developing stream of mathematical thought. These topics are just as engaging and entertaining to children as typical ``recreational math'' problems, but they can be developed deeper and to more advanced levels.In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession.

Paperback. Condizione: New. The What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences series presents a selection of recent discoveries and exciting fields of research in mathematics, explained in depth but in a slow-paced, reader-friendly way.In the first few months of 2023, artificial "brains" like ChatGPT and GPT-4 were constantly in the news, and they have already turned into big business. One chapter in this book, "Deep Learning: Part Math, Part Alchemy", explains how math disentangles hype from reality and explains some of the remarkable advances of machine learning. Meanwhile, "Organizing the Chaos Inside the Brain" explores animal brains, and describes how biologists can apply chaos theory to simulate the wanderings of a fly from firing data on neurons within its brain.This issue of What's Happening also includes many treats for readers who like pure math-especially those who are interested in geometry. In recent months and years, there have been unexpected discoveries in tiling ("One Stone to Rule Them All"), sphere-packing in more than three dimensions ("A Fascination of Spheres") and the reconstruction of three-dimensional scenes from two-dimensional images ("Multi-View Geometry: E Pluribus Unum"). The chapter "How to Draw an Alternate Universe" will, as promised, open a door to a completely different, non-Euclidean universe-or several of them. Shakespeare's words, "something rich and strange", only begin to describe them.In "How Mathematicians Unearthed the Stubborn Secrets of Fano Varieties", readers will learn about one of the building blocks of algebraic geometry, the branch of geometry that deals with surfaces defined by polynomial equations. The chapter "Missing One Digit" addresses a seemingly elementary problem in number theory: how many prime numbers do not have a "7" in them? The answer is easy to guess-but hard to prove. "Fluid Flow: Two Paths to a Singularity" discusses another guess that is hard to prove: can fluids in an enclosed region develop "singularities" akin to a breaking wave? Computer evidence is mounting that they can-including some evidence from machine learning algorithms. (Which brings us full circle back to the "Deep Learning" chapter.)Dana Mackenzie has written for the What's Happening series since Volume 6, published in 2006. In this volume he is joined by Leila Sloman, whose name will be familiar to many readers from her work for Quanta Magazine.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This volume is based on lectures on division algebras given at a conference held at Colorado State University. Although division algebras are a very classical object, this book presents this ""classical"" material in a new way, highlighting current approaches and new theorems, and illuminating the connections with a variety of areas in mathematics.

Paperback. Condizione: New. The vibrant recreational mathematics culture of Japan presents puzzles that are often quite different from the classics of western literature. This book is the first collection of original puzzles by Tadao Kitazawa, a prominent Japanese puzzle-maker. These puzzles, which feature arithmetic, geometry, and combinatorics, are novel, creative, and require almost no formal mathematical knowledge. Kitazawa is particularly skillful in subtly modifying existing ideas to explore their potential to the full. For one example, a Tower Square is a Sudoku-like grid, but each row and column contains one 1, two 2s, three 3s, etc. The resulting transformation of the familiar problem is magical, and it is one of a variety of gems in this book. The common denominator is fun!

Paperback. Condizione: New. This book is for anyone who wishes to illustrate their mathematical ideas, which in our experience means everyone. It is organized by material, rather than by subject area, and purposefully emphasizes the process of creating things, including discussions of failures that occurred along the way. As a result, the reader can learn from the experiences of those who came before, and will be inspired to create their own illustrations.Topics illustrated within include prime numbers, fractals, the Klein bottle, Borromean rings, tilings, space-filling curves, knot theory, billiards, complex dynamics, algebraic surfaces, groups and prime ideals, the Riemann zeta function, quadratic fields, hyperbolic space, and hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Everyone who opens this book should find a type of mathematics with which they identify.Each contributor explains the mathematics behind their illustration at an accessible level, so that all readers can appreciate the beauty of both the object itself and the mathematics behind it.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This book is a captivating account of a professional mathematician's experiences conducting a math circle for preschoolers in his apartment in Moscow in the 1980s. As anyone who has taught or raised young children knows, mathematical education for little kids is a real mystery. What are they capable of? What should they learn first? How hard should they work? Should they even "work" at all? Should we push them, or just let them be? There are no correct answers to these questions, and the author deals with them in classic math-circle style: he doesn't ask and then answer a question, but shows us a problem--be it mathematical or pedagogical--and describes to us what happened. His book is a narrative about what he did, what he tried, what worked, what failed, but most important, what the kids experienced. This book does not purport to show you how to create precocious high achievers. It is just one person's story about things he tried with a half-dozen young children. Mathematicians, psychologists, educators, parents, and everybody interested in the intellectual development in young children will find this book to be an invaluable, inspiring resource.A co-publication with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).

Paperback. Condizione: New. This volume contains expository lectures from the CBMS Regional Conference held at Harvey Mudd College, June 1977. The conference was supported by the National Science Foundation. The main theme of this monograph consists of applications to nonlinear differential equations of the author's coincidental degree. It includes an extensive bibliography covering many aspects of the modern theory of nonlinear differential equations and the theory of nonlinear analysis.

Paperback. Condizione: New. This volume presents topics in probability theory covered during a first-year graduate course given at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. The necessary background material in measure theory is developed, including the standard topics, such as extension theorem, construction of measures, integration, product spaces, Radon-Nikodym theorem, and conditional expectation. In the first part of the book, characteristic functions are introduced, followed by the study of weak convergence of probability distributions. Then both the weak and strong limit theorems for sums of independent random variables are proved, including the weak and strong laws of large numbers, central limit theorems, laws of the iterated logarithm, and the Kolmogorov three series theorem. The first part concludes with infinitely divisible distributions and limit theorems for sums of uniformly infinitesimal independent random variables. The second part of the book mainly deals with dependent random variables, particularly martingales and Markov chains. Topics include standard results regarding discrete parameter martingales and Doob's inequalities. The standard topics in Markov chains are treated, i.e., transience, and null and positive recurrence. A varied collection of examples is given to demonstrate the connection between martingales and Markov chains. Additional topics covered in the book include stationary Gaussian processes, ergodic theorems, dynamic programming, optimal stopping, and filtering. A large number of examples and exercises is included. The book is a suitable text for a first-year graduate course in probability.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Early middle school is a great time for children to start their mathematical circle education. This time is a period of curiosity and openness to learning. The thinking habits and study skills acquired by children at this age stay with them for a lifetime. Mathematical circles, with their question-driven approach and emphasis on creative problem-solving, have been rapidly gaining popularity in the United States. The circles expose children to the type of mathematics that stimulates development of logical thinking, creativity, analytical abilities and mathematical reasoning. These skills, while scarcely touched upon at school, are in high demand in the modern world. This book contains everything that is needed to run a successful mathematical circle for a full year. The materials, distributed among 29 weekly lessons, include detailed lectures and discussions, sets of problems with solutions, and contests and games. In addition, the book shares some of the know-how of running a mathematical circle. The curriculum, which is based on the rich and long-standing Russian math circle tradition, has been modified and adapted for teaching in the United States. For the past decade, the author has been actively involved in teaching a number of mathematical circles in the Seattle area. This book is based on her experience and on the compilation of materials from these circles. The material is intended for students in grades 5 to 7. It can be used by teachers and parents with various levels of expertise who are interested in teaching mathematics with the emphasis on critical thinking. Also, this book will be of interest to mathematically motivated children. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Gallery of the Infinite is a mathematician's unique view of the infinitely many sizes of infinity. Written in a playful yet informative style, it introduces important concepts from set theory (including the Cantor Diagonalization Method and the Cantor-Bernstein Theorem) using colorful pictures, with little text and almost no formulas. It requires no specialized background and is suitable for anyone with an interest in the infinite, from advanced middle-school students to inquisitive adults.

Paperback. Condizione: New. What does the 2000 U.S. presidential election have in common with selecting a textbook for a calculus course in your department? Was Ralph Nader's influence on the election of George W. Bush greater than the now-famous chads? In ""Chaotic Elections!"", Don Saari analyzes these questions, placing them in the larger context of voting systems in general. His analysis shows that the fundamental problems with the 2000 presidential election are not with the courts, recounts, or defective ballots, but are caused by the very way Americans vote for president. This expository book shows how mathematics can help to identify and characterize a disturbingly large number of paradoxical situations that result from the choice of a voting procedure. Moreover, rather than being able to dismiss them as anomalies, the likelihood of a dubious election result is surprisingly large.These consequences indicate that election outcomes - whether for president, the site of the next Olympics, the chair of a university department, or a prize winner - can differ from what the voters really wanted. They show that by using an inadequate voting procedure, we can, inadvertently, choose badly. To add to the difficulties, it turns out that the mathematical structures of voting admit several strategic opportunities, which are described. Finally, mathematics also helps identify positive results: by using mathematical symmetries, we can identify what the phrase 'what the voters really want' might mean and obtain a unique voting method that satisfies these conditions.Saari's book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand not only what happened in the presidential election of 2000, but also how we can avoid similar problems from appearing anytime any group is making a choice using a voting procedure. Reading this book requires little more than high school mathematics and an interest in how the apparently simple situation of voting can lead to surprising paradoxes.

Paperback. Condizione: New. Many mathematicians have been drawn to mathematics through their experience with math circles. The Berkeley Math Circle (BMC) started in 1998 as one of the very first math circles in the U.S. Over the last decade and a half, 100 instructors - university professors, business tycoons, high school teachers, and more - have shared their passion for mathematics by delivering over 800 BMC sessions on the UC Berkeley campus every week during the school year.This second volume of the book series is based on a dozen of these sessions, encompassing a variety of enticing and stimulating mathematical topics, some new and some continuing from Volume I:from dismantling Rubik's Cube and randomly putting it back together to solving it with the power of group theoryfrom raising knot-eating machines and letting Alexander the Great cut the Gordian Knot to breaking through knot theory via the Jones polynomialfrom entering a seemingly hopeless infinite raffle to becoming friendly with multiplicative functions in the land of Dirichlet, Mobius, and Eulerfrom leading an army of jumping fleas in an old problem from the International Mathematical Olympiads to improving our own essay-writing strategiesfrom searching for optimal paths on a hot summer day to questioning whether Archimedes was on his way to discovering trigonometry 2000 years agoDo some of these scenarios sound bizarre, having never before been associated with mathematics? Mathematicians love having fun while doing serious mathematics and that love is what this book intends to share with the reader. Whether at a beginner, an intermediate, or an advanced level, anyone can find a place here to be provoked to think deeply and to be inspired to create.In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession.