Details

An anthology of the year's finest writing on mathematics from around the world, featuring promising new voices as well as some of the foremost names in mathematics.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Mathematics and Teaching
• In Defense of Pure Mathematics
• G. H. Hardy: Mathematical Biologist
• The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics
• Stacking Wine Bottles Revisited
• The Way the Billiard Ball Bounces
• The Intersection Game
• Tonight! Epic Math Battles: Counting vs. Matching
• Mathematicians Chase Moonshine’s Shadow
• The Impenetrable Proof
• A Proof That Some Spaces Can’t Be Cut
• Einstein’s First Proof
• Why String Theory Still Offers Hope We Can Unify Physics
• The Pioneering Role of the Sierpinski Gasket
• Fractals as Photographs
• Math at the Met
• Common Sense about the Common Core
• Explaining Your Math: Unnecessary at Best, Encumbering at Worst
• Teaching Applied Mathematics
• Circular Reasoning: Who First Proved that C Divided by d Is a Constant?
• A Medieval Mystery: Nicole Oresme’s Concept of Curvitas
• The Myth of Leibniz’s Proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
• The Spirograph and Mathematical Models from Nineteenth-Century Germany
• What Does “Depth” Mean in Mathematics?
• Finding Errors in Big Data
• Programs and Probability
• Lottery Perception
• Why Acknowledging Uncertainty Can Make You a Better Scientist
• For Want of a Nail: Why Unnecessarily Long Tests May Be Impeding the Progress of Western Civilization
• How to Write a General Interest Mathematics Book
• Contributors
• Notable Writings
• Acknowledgments
• Credits