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Exploring Discrete Geometry
Thomas Q. Sibley
Together with its clear mathematical exposition, the problems in this book take the reader from an introduction to discrete geometry all the way to its frontiers. Investigations start with easily drawn figures, such as dividing a polygon into triangles or finding the minimum number of “guards” for a polygon (“art gallery” problem). These early explorations build intuition and set the stage. Variations on the initial problems stretch this intuition in new directions. These variations on problems together with growing intuition and understanding illustrate the theme of this book: “When you have answered the question, it is time to question the answer.” Numerous drawings, informal explanations, and careful reasoning build on high school algebra and geometry.
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Thinking Algebraically: An Introduction to Abstract Algebra
Thomas Q. Sibley
Thinking Algebraically presents the insights of abstract algebra in a welcoming and accessible way. It succeeds in combining the advantages of rings\-first and groups\-first approaches while avoiding the disadvantages. After an historical overview, the first chapter studies familiar examples and elementary properties of groups and rings simultaneously to motivate the modern understanding of algebra. The text builds intuition for abstract algebra starting from high school algebra. In addition to the standard number systems, polynomials, vectors, and matrices, the first chapter introduces modular arithmetic and dihedral groups. The second chapter builds on these basic examples and properties, enabling students to learn structural ideas common to rings and groups: isomorphism, homomorphism, and direct product. The third chapter investigates introductory group theory. Later chapters delve more deeply into groups, rings, and fields, including Galois theory, and they also introduce other topics, such as lattices. The exposition is clear and conversational throughout.\n\nThe book has numerous exercises in each section as well as supplemental exercises and projects for each chapter. Many examples and well over 100 figures provide support for learning. Short biographies introduce the mathematicians who proved many of the results. The book presents a pathway to algebraic thinking in a semester\- or year\-long algebra course.
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Thinking Geometrically: A Survey of Geometries
Thomas Q. Sibley
Thinking Geometrically: A Survey of Geometries is a well written and comprehensive survey of college geometry that would serve a wide variety of courses for both mathematics majors and mathematics education majors. Great care and attention is spent on developing visual insights and geometric intuition while stressing the logical structure, historical development, and deep interconnectedness of the ideas.
Students with less mathematical preparation than upper-division mathematics majors can successfully study the topics needed for the preparation of high school teachers. There is a multitude of exercises and projects in those chapters developing all aspects of geometric thinking for these students as well as for more advanced students. These chapters include Euclidean Geometry, Axiomatic Systems and Models, Analytic Geometry, Transformational Geometry, and Symmetry. Topics in the other chapters, including Non-Euclidean Geometry, Projective Geometry, Finite Geometry, Differential Geometry, and Discrete Geometry, provide a broader view of geometry. The different chapters are as independent as possible, while the text still manages to highlight the many connections between topics.
The text is self-contained, including appendices with the material in Euclid’s first book and a high school axiomatic system as well as Hilbert’s axioms. Appendices give brief summaries of the parts of linear algebra and multivariable calculus needed for certain chapters. While some chapters use the language of groups, no prior experience with abstract algebra is presumed. The text will support an approach emphasizing dynamical geometry software without being tied to any particular software.
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The Continued Adventures of the Parrot
Gary Brown
Fritz, better known as the Parrot, solves cases using mathematical reasoning and metaphors from modern game theory. In The Case of the Missing Heroine, Fritz is enticed by a seductive voice to find two characters that appear in a recurring dream. All he is given is an old photo and a client that has a missing childhood. In the process of his investigation he encounters the stories of three famous heroines and a possible connection to the characters in the dream. He tries to build game theoretical models using ideas from Heisenberg and Von Neumann that give some sort of measure of randomness and information. In the end, is he successful in finding a quantitative method for determining the truth from a collection of four similar stories?
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The Adventures of the Parrot
Gary Brown
Fritz, better known as the Parrot, solves cases using mathematical reasoning and metaphors from modern game theory.
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The Foundations of Mathematics
Thomas Q. Sibley
Finally there's an easy-to-follow book that will help readers succeed in the art of proving theorems. Sibley not only conveys the spirit of mathematics but also uncovers the skills required to succeed. Key definitions are introduced while readers are encouraged to develop an intuition about these concepts and practice using them in problems.
