An Applied Mathematician’s Apology


Book Description

In 1940 G. H. Hardy published A Mathematician's Apology, a meditation on mathematics by a leading pure mathematician. Eighty-two years later, An Applied Mathematician's Apology is a meditation and also a personal memoir by a philosophically inclined numerical analyst, one who has found great joy in his work but is puzzled by its relationship to the rest of mathematics.




A Mathematician's Apology


Book Description

G. H. Hardy was one of this century's finest mathematical thinkers, renowned among his contemporaries as a 'real mathematician ... the purest of the pure'. He was also, as C. P. Snow recounts in his Foreword, 'unorthodox, eccentric, radical, ready to talk about anything'. This 'apology', written in 1940 as his mathematical powers were declining, offers a brilliant and engaging account of mathematics as very much more than a science; when it was first published, Graham Greene hailed it alongside Henry James's notebooks as 'the best account of what it was like to be a creative artist'. C. P. Snow's Foreword gives sympathetic and witty insights into Hardy's life, with its rich store of anecdotes concerning his collaboration with the brilliant Indian mathematician Ramanujan, his aphorisms and idiosyncrasies, and his passion for cricket. This is a unique account of the fascination of mathematics and of one of its most compelling exponents in modern times.




An Applied Mathematician's Apology


Book Description

"This is a memoir about the life and work of applied mathematician Lloyd N. Trefethen"--




Mathematics without Apologies


Book Description

An insightful reflection on the mathematical soul What do pure mathematicians do, and why do they do it? Looking beyond the conventional answers—for the sake of truth, beauty, and practical applications—this book offers an eclectic panorama of the lives and values and hopes and fears of mathematicians in the twenty-first century, assembling material from a startlingly diverse assortment of scholarly, journalistic, and pop culture sources. Drawing on his personal experiences and obsessions as well as the thoughts and opinions of mathematicians from Archimedes and Omar Khayyám to such contemporary giants as Alexander Grothendieck and Robert Langlands, Michael Harris reveals the charisma and romance of mathematics as well as its darker side. In this portrait of mathematics as a community united around a set of common intellectual, ethical, and existential challenges, he touches on a wide variety of questions, such as: Are mathematicians to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? How can we talk about the ideas we were born too soon to understand? And how should you react if you are asked to explain number theory at a dinner party? Disarmingly candid, relentlessly intelligent, and richly entertaining, Mathematics without Apologies takes readers on an unapologetic guided tour of the mathematical life, from the philosophy and sociology of mathematics to its reflections in film and popular music, with detours through the mathematical and mystical traditions of Russia, India, medieval Islam, the Bronx, and beyond.




A Mathematician's Lament


Book Description

“One of the best critiques of current mathematics education I have ever seen.”—Keith Devlin, math columnist on NPR’s Morning Edition A brilliant research mathematician who has devoted his career to teaching kids reveals math to be creative and beautiful and rejects standard anxiety-producing teaching methods. Witty and accessible, Paul Lockhart’s controversial approach will provoke spirited debate among educators and parents alike and it will alter the way we think about math forever. Paul Lockhart, has taught mathematics at Brown University and UC Santa Cruz. Since 2000, he has dedicated himself to K-12 level students at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York.







Applied Mathematics


Book Description

Applied Mathematics: Made Simple provides an elementary study of the three main branches of classical applied mathematics: statics, hydrostatics, and dynamics. The book begins with discussion of the concepts of mechanics, parallel forces and rigid bodies, kinematics, motion with uniform acceleration in a straight line, and Newton's law of motion. Separate chapters cover vector algebra and coplanar motion, relative motion, projectiles, friction, and rigid bodies in equilibrium under the action of coplanar forces. The final chapters deal with machines and hydrostatics. The standard and content of the book covers C.S.E. and 'O' level G.C.E. examinations in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics as well as the relevant parts of the syllabuses for Physics and General Science courses related to Engineering, Building, and Agriculture. The book is also written for the home study reader who is interested in widening his mathematical appreciation or simply reviving forgotten ideas. The author hopes that the style of presentation will be found sufficiently attractive to recapture those who may at one time have lost interest.




Optimal Transport for Applied Mathematicians


Book Description

This monograph presents a rigorous mathematical introduction to optimal transport as a variational problem, its use in modeling various phenomena, and its connections with partial differential equations. Its main goal is to provide the reader with the techniques necessary to understand the current research in optimal transport and the tools which are most useful for its applications. Full proofs are used to illustrate mathematical concepts and each chapter includes a section that discusses applications of optimal transport to various areas, such as economics, finance, potential games, image processing and fluid dynamics. Several topics are covered that have never been previously in books on this subject, such as the Knothe transport, the properties of functionals on measures, the Dacorogna-Moser flow, the formulation through minimal flows with prescribed divergence formulation, the case of the supremal cost, and the most classical numerical methods. Graduate students and researchers in both pure and applied mathematics interested in the problems and applications of optimal transport will find this to be an invaluable resource.




Applied Mathematics in Hydrogeology


Book Description

As introduced in Dr. Lee's 10-week class, Applied Mathematics in Hydrogeology is written for professionals and graduate students who have a keen interest in the application of mathematics in hydrogeology. Its first seven chapters cover analytical solutions for problems commonly encountered in the study of quantitative hydrogeology, while the final three chapters focus on solving linear simultaneous equations, finite element analysis, and inversion for parameter determination. Dr. Lee provides various equation-solving methods that are of interest to hydrogeologists, geophysicists, soil scientists, and civil engineers, as well as applied physicists and mathematicians. In the classroom, this same information will help students realize how familiar equations in hydrogeology are derived-an important step toward development of a student's own mathematical models. Unlike other applied mathematics books that are structured according to systematic methodology, Applied Mathematics in Hydrogeology emphasizes equation-solving methods according to topics. Hydrogeological problems and governing differential equations are introduced, including hydraulic responses to pumping in confined and unconfined aquifers, as well as transport of heat and solute in flowing groundwater.




A First Course in Applied Mathematics


Book Description

Explore real-world applications of selected mathematical theory, concepts, and methods Exploring related methods that can be utilized in various fields of practice from science and engineering to business, A First Course in Applied Mathematics details how applied mathematics involves predictions, interpretations, analysis, and mathematical modeling to solve real-world problems. Written at a level that is accessible to readers from a wide range of scientific and engineering fields, the book masterfully blends standard topics with modern areas of application and provides the needed foundation for transitioning to more advanced subjects. The author utilizes MATLAB® to showcase the presented theory and illustrate interesting real-world applications to Google's web page ranking algorithm, image compression, cryptography, chaos, and waste management systems. Additional topics covered include: Linear algebra Ranking web pages Matrix factorizations Least squares Image compression Ordinary differential equations Dynamical systems Mathematical models Throughout the book, theoretical and applications-oriented problems and exercises allow readers to test their comprehension of the presented material. An accompanying website features related MATLAB® code and additional resources. A First Course in Applied Mathematics is an ideal book for mathematics, computer science, and engineering courses at the upper-undergraduate level. The book also serves as a valuable reference for practitioners working with mathematical modeling, computational methods, and the applications of mathematics in their everyday work.