Conjecture and Proof (Classroom Resource Materials) - Softcover

Laczkovich, Miklós

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0883857227 ISBN 13: 9780883857229

Publisher: The Mathematical Association of America, 2002

Synopsis

The Budapest semesters in mathematics were initiated with the aim of offering undergraduate courses that convey the tradition of Hungarian mathematics to English-speaking students. This book is an elaborate version of the course on 'Conjecture and Proof'. It gives miniature introductions to various areas of mathematics by presenting some interesting and important, but easily accessible results and methods. The text contains complete proofs of deep results such as the transcendence of e, the Banach-Tarski paradox and the existence of Borel sets of arbitrary (finite) class. One of the purposes is to demonstrate how far one can get from the first principles in just a couple of steps. Prerequisites are kept to a minimum, and any introductory calculus course provides the necessary background for understanding the book. Exercises are included for the benefit of students. However, this book should prove fascinating for any mathematically literate reader.

About this title

About the Author

Miklos Laczkovich was born in Budapest, Hungary. He graduated from the Eotvos Lorand University (Budapest) and has been teaching at the same University since then, but also had several visiting positions at various universities in Canada, England, Italy and in the United States. His main field of interest is real analysis. He was an invited speaker at the First European Congress of Mathematics held in Paris, France in 1992. In 1993 he won the Ostrowski prize for the solution of Tarski's 'circle-squaring' problem. Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Mathematical Association of America
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0883857227
• ISBN 13: 9780883857229
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 127