Creative Mathematics

Develops the reader's mathematical creativity and independence. Assumes little formal mathematical background.

H. S. Wall (Author)

9780883857502, The Mathematical Association of America

Hardback, published 19 March 2009

218 pages
23.6 x 15.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.42 kg

Professor H. S. Wall (1902–1971) developed Creative Mathematics over a period of many years of working with students at the University of Texas, Austin. His aim was to lead students to develop their mathematical abilities, to help them learn the art of mathematics, and to teach them to create mathematical ideas. This book, according to Wall, 'is not a compendium of mathematical facts and inventions to be read over as a connoisseur of art looks over paintings. It is, instead, a sketchbook in which readers try their hands at mathematical discovery.' In less than two hundred pages, he takes the reader on a stimulating tour starting with numbers, and then moving on to simple graphs, the integral, simple surfaces, successive approximations, linear spaces of simple graphs, and concluding with mechanical systems. The book is self contained, and assumes little formal mathematical background on the part of the reader.

Preface
1. Numbers
2. Ordered number pairs
3. Slope
4. Combinations of simple graphs
5. Theorems about simple graphs
6. The simple graphs of trigonometry
7. The integral
8. Computation formulas obtained by means of the integral
9. Simple graphs made to order
10. More about integrals
11. Simple surfaces
12. Successive approximations
13. Linear spaces of simple graphs
14. More about linear spaces
15. Mechanical systems
Integral Tables
Index of simple graphs
Glossary of definitions.

Subject Areas: Mathematics [PB]