Roland Park Country School - Upper School Mathematics Suggested Reading List

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Every six months or so, Martin Gardner devoted a column of Scientific American to short Gardner, My Best Mathematical and math problems or puzzles. The present volume contains a rich selection of 70 of the best Non-fiction Martin Logic Puzzles of these brain teasers, in some cases including references to new developments related to the puzzle. Solutions are included.

In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick- thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they recruited an Rise of the Rocket Girls: The elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, Women Who Propelled Us, Holt, Nathalia Non-fiction transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the from Missiles to the Moon exploration of the solar system possible. For the first time, Rise of the Rocket Girls tells to Mars the stories of these women--known as "human computers"--who broke the boundaries of both gender and science.

This is, quite simply, one of the best and most popular puzzle book ever published. Since Kordemsky, The Moscow Puzzles: 359 its first appearance in 1956 there have been eight editions as well as translations from Non-fiction Boris Mathematical Recreations the original Russian into Ukrainian, Estonian, Lettish, and Lithuanian. Almost a million copies of the Russian version alone have been sold. For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two great prodigies (Niels Henrik Abel and Évariste Galois) ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. Their The Equation That Couldn't Livio, Mario Non-fiction incredible labor, however, produced the origins of . The first extensive, Be Solved popular account of the mathematics of and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.

Brilliant Blunders: From Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), , , and Albert Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Einstein all made groundbreaking contributions to their fields—but each also stumbled Mistakes by Great Scientists badly. As Mario Livio luminously explains in this “thoughtful meditation on the course of Livio, Mario Non-fiction That Changed Our science itself” ( Book Review), these five scientists expanded our Understanding of Life and knowledge of life on earth, the evolution of the earth, and the evolution of the , the Universe despite and because of their errors.

The is a captivating journey through art and architecture, botany and biology, physics and mathematics. It tells the human story of numerous phi-fixated individuals, including the followers of Pythagoras who believed that this proportion The Golden Ratio: The Story revealed the hand of God; astronomer Johannes Kepler, who saw phi as the greatest Livio, Mario of PHI, the World's Most Non-fiction treasure of geometry; such Renaissance thinkers as mathematician Leonardo of Astonishing Number Pisa; and such masters of the modern world as Goethe, Cezanne, Bartok, and physicist Roger Penrose. Wherever his quest for the meaning of phi takes him, Mario Livio reveals the world as a place where order, beauty, and eternal mystery will always coexist. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that - - mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or Livio, Mario Is God a Mathematician? Non-fiction cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is "a product of human thought that is independent of experience," how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us? Mathematicians themselves often insist that their work has no practical effect.

The Puzzle Universe is intended for general readers and devoted puzzlers. It is about the latent beauty of mathematics, its history, and the puzzles that have advanced and The Puzzle Universe: A emerged from the science of numbers. It is full of challenging historical facts, thinking Moscovich, History of Mathematics in Non-fiction puzzles, paradoxes, illusions, and problem solving. There are 315 puzzles in this book. Ivan 315 Puzzles Extended captions explain in easy terms the value of the puzzles for mathematical and educational purposes, particularly in light of the findings of recent research. This historical and pedagogical dimension sets The Puzzle Universe apart from similar books.

You may have watched hundreds of episodes of The Simpsons without ever realizing that cleverly embedded in many plots are subtle references to mathematics, ranging from well-known equations to cutting-edge theorems and conjectures. That they exist, Simon Singh reveals, underscores the brilliance of the shows' writers, many of whom have The Simpsons and Their Singh, Simon Non-fiction advanced degrees in mathematics in addition to their unparalleled sense of humor. With Mathematical Secrets wit and clarity, displaying a true fan's zeal, and replete with images from the shows, photographs of the writers, and diagrams and proofs, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets offers an entirely new insight into the most successful show in television history.