About the Book
The year's finest mathematics writing from around the world This annual anthology brings together the year's finest mathematics writing from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in the field, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2016 makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else--and you don't need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today's hottest mathematical debates. Here Burkard Polster shows how to invent your own variants of the Spot It! card game, Steven Strogatz presents young Albert Einstein's proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, Joseph Dauben and Marjorie Senechal find a treasure trove of math in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Andrew Gelman explains why much scientific research based on statistical testing is spurious.
In other essays, Brian Greene discusses the evolving assumptions of the physicists who developed the mathematical underpinnings of string theory, Jorge Almeida examines the misperceptions of people who attempt to predict lottery results, and Ian Stewart offers advice to authors who aspire to write successful math books for general readers. And there's much, much more. In addition to presenting the year's most memorable writings on mathematics, this must-have anthology includes a bibliography of other notable writings and an introduction by the editor, Mircea Pitici. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in where math has taken us--and where it is headed.
Table of Contents:
Introduction Mircea Pitici xi Mathematics and Teaching, Hyman Bass 1 In Defense of Pure Mathematics, Daniel S. Silver 17 G. H. Hardy: Mathematical Biologist, Hannah Elizabeth Christenson and Stephan Ramon Garcia 27 The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics, Derek Abbott 32 Stacking Wine Bottles Revisited, Burkard Polster 48 The Way the Billiard Ball Bounces, Joshua Bowman 66 The Intersection Game, Burkard Polster 77 Tonight! Epic Math Battles: Counting vs. Matching, Jennifer J. Quinn 86 Mathematicians Chase Moonshine's Shadow, Erica Klarreich 96 The Impenetrable Proof, Davide Castelvecchi 105 A Proof That Some Spaces Can't Be Cut, Kevin Hartnett 114 Einstein's First Proof, Steven Strogatz 122 Why String Theory Still Offers Hope We Can Unify Physics, Brian Greene 132 The Pioneering Role of the Sierpinski Gasket, Tanya Khovanova, Eric Nie, and Alok Puranik 140 Fractals as Photographs Marc Frantz 149 Math at the Met, Joseph Dauben and Marjorie Senechal 155 Common Sense about the Common Core, Alan H. Schoenfeld 187 Explaining Your Math: Unnecessary at Best, Encumbering at Worst, Katharine Beals and Barry Garelick 196 Teaching Applied Mathematics, David Acheson, Peter R. Turner, Gilbert Strang, and Rachel Levy 203 Circular Reasoning: Who First Proved that C Divided by d Is a Constant? David Richeson 224 A Medieval Mystery: Nicole Oresme's Concept of Curvitas, Isabel M. Serrano and Bogdan D. Suceava 238 The Myth of Leibniz's Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Viktor Blasjo 249 The Spirograph and Mathematical Models from Nineteenth-Century Germany, Amy Shell-Gellasch 261 What Does "Depth" Mean in Mathematics? John Stillwell 268 Finding Errors in Big Data, Marco Puts, Piet Daas, and Ton de Waal 291 Programs and Probability, Brian Hayes 300 Lottery Perception, Jorge Almeida 311 Why Acknowledging Uncertainty Can Make You a Better Scientist, Andrew Gelman 316 For Want of a Nail: Why Unnecessarily Long Tests May Be Impeding the Progress of Western Civilization, Howard Wainer and Richard Feinberg 321 How to Write a General Interest Mathematics Book, Ian Stewart 331 Contributors 345 Notable Writings 355 Acknowledgments 373 Credits 375
About the Author :
Mircea Pitici holds a PhD in mathematics education from Cornell University and is working on a master's degree in library and information science at Syracuse University. He has edited The Best Writing on Mathematics since 2010.
Review :
"[O]ne of my favorite series of books, an annual compilation of high-quality mathematical writing combined with a valuable list of additional resources prepared by the editor."--Mark Hunacek, MAA Reviews "Mircea Pitici's yearly Best Writing on Mathematics volume is a great reminder of just how much accessible math there is! ... Every year I end up saying 'this year's edition [of Pitici's effort] seems like the best one yet.' And so it does... [The Best Writing on Mathematics 2016] is beautifully-produced... As always, Pitici is impressive with the eclectic diversity of his choices for inclusion... I'm already anxious for [Pitici's] 2017 edition!"--Math Tango blog Praise for previous editions: "A volume of unexpectedly fascinating mathematical research, musings, and studies that explore subjects from art to medicine... [R]eaders from many disciplines will find much to pique their interest."--Publishers Weekly Praise for previous editions: "Entertaining and informative."--Ian D. Gordon, Library Journal Praise for previous editions: "Wonderful... [C]annot be recommended highly enough!"--Robert Schaefer, New York Journal of Books Praise for previous editions: "A wonderful and varied bouquet of texts... I highly recommend this book to everyone with an interest in mathematics."--Stephen Buckley, Irish Mathematical Society Bulletin
