Excursions into Combinatorial Geometry


Book Description

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Introduction to Combinatorial Methods in Geometry


Book Description

This book offers an introduction to some combinatorial (also, set-theoretical) approaches and methods in geometry of the Euclidean space Rm. The topics discussed in the manuscript are due to the field of combinatorial and convex geometry. The author’s primary intention is to discuss those themes of Euclidean geometry which might be of interest to a sufficiently wide audience of potential readers. Accordingly, the material is explained in a simple and elementary form completely accessible to the college and university students. At the same time, the author reveals profound interactions between various facts and statements from different areas of mathematics: the theory of convex sets, finite and infinite combinatorics, graph theory, measure theory, classical number theory, etc. All chapters (and also the five Appendices) end with a number of exercises. These provide the reader with some additional information about topics considered in the main text of this book. Naturally, the exercises vary in their difficulty. Among them there are almost trivial, standard, nontrivial, rather difficult, and difficult. As a rule, more difficult exercises are marked by asterisks and are provided with necessary hints. The material presented is based on the lecture course given by the author. The choice of material serves to demonstrate the unity of mathematics and variety of unexpected interrelations between distinct mathematical branches.







Israel Gohberg and Friends


Book Description

Mathematicians do not work in isolation. They stand in a long and time honored tradition. They write papers and (sometimes) books, they read the publications of fellow workers in the ?eld, and they meet other mathematicians at conferences all over the world. In this way, in contact with colleagues far away and nearby, from the past (via their writings) and from the present, scienti?c results are obtained whicharerecognizedasvalid.Andthat–remarkablyenough–regardlessofethnic background, political inclination or religion. In this process, some distinguished individuals play a special and striking role. They assume a position of leadership. They guide the people working with them through uncharted territory, thereby making a lasting imprint on the ?eld. So- thing which can only be accomplished through a combination of rare talents: - usually broad knowledge, unfailing intuition and a certain kind of charisma that binds people together. AllofthisispresentinIsraelGohberg,themantowhomthisbookisdedicated,on theoccasionof his 80thbirthday.This comes to the foregroundunmistakably from the contributions from those who worked with him or whose life was a?ected by him. Gohberg’sexceptionalqualitiesarealsoapparentfromthe articleswritten by himself, sometimes jointly with others, that are reproduced in this book. Among these are stories of his life, some dealing with mathematical aspects, others of a more general nature. Also included are reminiscences paying tribute to a close colleaguewho isnotamongusanymore,speechesorreviewshighlightingthework and personality of a friend or esteemed colleague, and responses to the laudatio’s connected with the several honorary degrees that were bestowed upon him.




Geometry Revealed


Book Description

Both classical geometry and modern differential geometry have been active subjects of research throughout the 20th century and lie at the heart of many recent advances in mathematics and physics. The underlying motivating concept for the present book is that it offers readers the elements of a modern geometric culture by means of a whole series of visually appealing unsolved (or recently solved) problems that require the creation of concepts and tools of varying abstraction. Starting with such natural, classical objects as lines, planes, circles, spheres, polygons, polyhedra, curves, surfaces, convex sets, etc., crucial ideas and above all abstract concepts needed for attaining the results are elucidated. These are conceptual notions, each built "above" the preceding and permitting an increase in abstraction, represented metaphorically by Jacob's ladder with its rungs: the 'ladder' in the Old Testament, that angels ascended and descended... In all this, the aim of the book is to demonstrate to readers the unceasingly renewed spirit of geometry and that even so-called "elementary" geometry is very much alive and at the very heart of the work of numerous contemporary mathematicians. It is also shown that there are innumerable paths yet to be explored and concepts to be created. The book is visually rich and inviting, so that readers may open it at random places and find much pleasure throughout according their own intuitions and inclinations. Marcel Berger is t he author of numerous successful books on geometry, this book once again is addressed to all students and teachers of mathematics with an affinity for geometry.




Computational Discrete Mathematics


Book Description

This book is based on a graduate education program on computational discrete mathematics run for several years in Berlin, Germany, as a joint effort of theoretical computer scientists and mathematicians in order to support doctoral students and advanced ongoing education in the field of discrete mathematics and algorithmics. The 12 selected lectures by leading researchers presented in this book provide recent research results and advanced topics in a coherent and consolidated way. Among the areas covered are combinatorics, graph theory, coding theory, discrete and computational geometry, optimization, and algorithmic aspects of algebra.




Discrete Geometry


Book Description

Celebrating the work of Professor W. Kuperberg, this reference explores packing and covering theory, tilings, combinatorial and computational geometry, and convexity, featuring an extensive collection of problems compiled at the Discrete Geometry Special Session of the American Mathematical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana. Discrete Geometry analy




Mathematics in Middle and Secondary School


Book Description

The experience and knowledge acquired in teacher education courses should build important fundamentals for the future teaching of mathematics. In particular, experience in mathematical problem solving, and in planning lessons devoted to problem solving, is an essential component of teacher preparation. This book develops a problem solving approach and is intended to be a text used in mathematics education courses (or professional development) for pre-service or in-service middle and secondary school teachers. It can be used both in graduate and undergraduate courses, in accordance with the focus of teacher preparation programs. The content of the book is suited especially for those students who are further along in their mathematics education preparation, as the text is more involved with mathematical ideas and problem solving, and discusses some of the intricate pedagogical considerations that arise in teaching. The text is written not as an introduction to mathematics education (a first course), but rather as a second, or probably, third course. The book deals both with general methodology issues in mathematics education incorporating a problem solving approach (Chapters 1-6) and with more concrete applications within the context of specific topics – algebra, geometry, and discrete mathematics (Chapters 7-13). The book provides opportunities for teachers to engage in authentic mathematical thinking. The mathematical ideas under consideration build on specific middle and secondary school content while simultaneously pushing the teacher to consider more advanced topics, as well as various connections across mathematical domains. The book strives to preserve the spirit of discussion, and at times even argument, typical of collaborative work on a lesson plan. Based on the accumulated experience of work with future and current teachers, the book assumes that students have some background in lesson planning, and extends their thinking further. Specifically, this book aims to provide a discussion of how a lesson plan is constructed, including the ways in which problems are selected or invented, rather than the compilation of prepared lesson plans. This approach reflects the authors’ view that the process of searching for an answer is often more important than the formal result.




Finite Packing and Covering


Book Description

This book provides an in-depth discussion of the theory of finite packings and coverings by convex bodies.




Geometric Methods and Optimization Problems


Book Description

VII Preface In many fields of mathematics, geometry has established itself as a fruitful method and common language for describing basic phenomena and problems as well as suggesting ways of solutions. Especially in pure mathematics this is ob vious and well-known (examples are the much discussed interplay between lin ear algebra and analytical geometry and several problems in multidimensional analysis). On the other hand, many specialists from applied mathematics seem to prefer more formal analytical and numerical methods and representations. Nevertheless, very often the internal development of disciplines from applied mathematics led to geometric models, and occasionally breakthroughs were b~ed on geometric insights. An excellent example is the Klee-Minty cube, solving a problem of linear programming by transforming it into a geomet ric problem. Also the development of convex programming in recent decades demonstrated the power of methods that evolved within the field of convex geometry. The present book focuses on three applied disciplines: control theory, location science and computational geometry. It is our aim to demonstrate how methods and topics from convex geometry in a wider sense (separation theory of convex cones, Minkowski geometry, convex partitionings, etc.) can help to solve various problems from these disciplines.