The brainy and infuriatingly fun-to-solve problems that have kept the best Russian math and physics students biting their pencils as far back as the time of the czars.

This book is about the Theory of Special Relatively (SR), the introductory parts of which, and other general comments on science and physics preceding it, would be of interest to the general reader. The alternative description of SR proposed and developed in the book is essentially that of Newton’s classical physics, except for the critical additional of a step properly expressing the travel time of light signals conveying information to the observer. The form of that step, in turn, is dictated by the requirements of SR as expressed through its essence, the Lorentz transformation. Conventional interpretations of SR phenomena are as the observer perceives them, in altered descriptions of space and time. The altered versions differ from those associated with the phenomena at the location of the event creating them, because the light signals, conveying the information from source to observer, involve certain travel times of the signals themselves. Thus, until deciphered, they are not a simple representation of times in the event of interest. When the alternative approach to representation of SR developed in this book is applied, the same results as those from the conventional approaches of SR are obtained. The expressions for quantities such as energy and momentum differ from the corresponding quantities in Newton’s model for space and time. The alternative approach in the book simply provides a more intuitive route to and a logical explanation of the relativistic process.

This is the most readable and thorough graduate textbook and reference for combinatorics, covering enumeration, graphs, sets, and methods.

The author of the acclaimed The Book of New Israeli Food returns with a cookbook devoted to the culinary masterpieces of Jewish grandmothers from Minsk to Marrakesh: recipes that have traveled across continents and cultural borders and are now brought to life for a new generation. For more than two thousand years, Jews all over the world developed cuisines that were suited to their needs (kashruth, holidays, Shabbat) but that also reflected the influences of their neighbors and that carried memories from their past wanderings. These cuisines may now be on the verge of extinction, however, because almost none of the Jewish communities in which they developed and thrived still exist. But they continue to be viable in Israel, where there are still cooks from the immigrant generations who know and love these dishes. Israel has become a living laboratory for this beloved and endangered Jewish food. The more than one hundred original, wide-ranging recipes in Jewish Soul Food—from Kubaneh, a surprising Yemenite version of a brioche, to Ushpa-lau, a hearty Bukharan pilaf—were chosen not by an editor or a chef but, rather, by what Janna Gur calls “natural selection.” These are the dishes that, though rooted in their original Diaspora provenance, have been embraced by Israelis and have become part of the country’s culinary landscape. The premise of Jewish Soul Food is that the only way to preserve traditional cuisine for future generations is to cook it, and Janna Gur gives us recipes that continue to charm with their practicality, relevance, and deliciousness. Here are the best of the best: recipes from a fascinatingly diverse food culture that will give you a chance to enrich your own cooking repertoire and to preserve a valuable element of the Jewish heritage and of its collective soul. (With full-color photographs throughout.)

Ingeniously designed mathematical riddles to delight armchair—and seasoned—mathematicians, in high school and beyond. In The Price of Cake, brothers Clément and Guillaume Deslandes have assembled a uniquely rich and accessible collection of mathematical riddles, organized by difficulty and accompanied by unique hand-drawn illustrations. The challenges are exceptional in both their range and their precision. There are no “tricks” here—just good math to test your skills. While any student will be thrilled to encounter fresh presentations of classic conundrums such as Simpson’s paradox, Hilbert's infinite hotel, Monty Hall’s paradox, and Seven Bridges of Königsberg, seasoned solvers will also appreciate challenging original puzzles using the Axiom of Choice and Conway’s Soldiers problem. The Deslandes’ lucid and elegant solutions offer new insights, as they seamlessly connect the skills applied in each problem to broader theoretical revelations. Moreover, as Fields Medalist Cédric Villani writes in his preface, these riddles are much more than just exercises. They capture “a certain dose of decorum and mystery,” and to decipher them will require both imagination and tenacity. To aid you on this journey, the authors provide hints to each puzzle, detailed proofs and solutions, and a series of Math Refreshers to revisit important concepts that are used to arrive at those answers. Entertaining and rigorous in equal measure, The Price of Cake is bound to captivate mathematics enthusiasts and students of all levels.

This book is a portrait of the Petaluma Jewish community from the early years of the century to the present day. Kenneth L. Kann interviewed more than two hundred residents, representing three generations of Jewish Americans. The picture that emerges from their testimony is of a wonderfully animated and fractious community. Its history blends many of the familiar themes of American Jewish life into a richly individual tapestry. In the first few decades of this century, many Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe wound up in Petaluma. This first generation of chicken farmers consisted largely of educated, often professional men and women; many were drawn to chicken farming as much by Marxist or Zionist beliefs in the dignity of labor as by economic necessity. They helped establish the particular character of a community, with its combination of arduous work and cultural aspiration.

Puzzle lovers, rejoice! Bestselling math writer Alex Bellos has a challenge for you: 125 of the world’s best brainteasers from the last two millennia. Armed with logic alone, you’ll detect counterfeit coins, navigate river crossings, and untangle family trees. Then—with just a dash of high school math—you’ll tie a rope around the Earth, match wits with a cryptic wizard, and use four 4s to create every number from 1 to 50. (It can be done!) The ultimate casebook for daring puzzlers, Can You Solve My Problems? also tells the story of the puzzle—from ancient China to Victorian England to modern-day Japan. Grab your pencil and get puzzling!

I have learned a lot from John Neu over the past years, and his book reflects very well his sense of style and purpose. --Walter Craig, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada John Neu's book presents the basic ideas of fluid mechanics, and of the transport of matter, in a clear and reader-friendly way. Then it proposes a collection of problems, starting with easy ones and gradually leading up to harder ones. Each problem is solved with all the steps explained. In the course of solving these problems, many fundamental methods of analysis are introduced and explained. This is an ideal book for use as a text, or for individual study. --Joseph B. Keller, Stanford University This book presents elementary models of transport in continuous media and a corresponding body of mathematical technique. Physical topics include convection and diffusion as the simplest models of transport; local conservation laws with sources as the general framework of continuum mechanics; ideal fluid as the simplest model of a medium with mass; momentum and energy transport; and finally, free surface waves, in particular, shallow water theory. There is a strong emphasis on dimensional analysis and scaling. Some topics, such as physical similarity and similarity solutions, are traditional. In addition, there are reductions based on scaling, such as incompressible flow as a limit of compressible flow, and shallow water theory derived asymptotically from the full equations of free surface waves. More and deeper examples are presented as problems, including a series of problems that model a tsunami approaching the shore. The problems form an embedded subtext to the book. Each problem is followed by a detailed solution emphasizing process and craftsmanship. The problems express the practice of applied mathematics as the examination and re-examination of simple but essential ideas in many interrelated examples.

Singapore’s bestselling Mathematical Quickies & Trickies, which has sold over 90,000 copies locally, contains more than 300 nonroutine problems to enhance students’ mathematical problem-solving skills. With many creative worked examples and questions, and with cartoons sprinkled throughout the book, Mathematical Quickies & Trickies would appeal primarily to these audiences: * grades 5-7 students and teachers looking for some fertile trick and tricky questions; * mathletes preparing for local and regional contests and competitions; * problem solvers longing to be challenged by questions whose obvious solutions are never the correct ones for what offhand appears to be true is false. With proper insight, you’ll learn how to solve these tricky problems almost instantly, whose solutions are almost never the correct ones. You need no longer be caught off-guard; instead, you’ll learn to solve these questions confidently—how to tame these counter-intuitive questions into routine ones. Contents 1. Mental Computation I 2. Mental Computation 2 3. Number Series 4. A Tricky Way with Fractions 5. Test Your Calculator Proficiency 6. Simplifying a Complex Fraction 7. Recurring Decimals 8. Is Zero an Even or Odd Integer? 9. Casting Out Nines 10. Be a Calculator Expert 11. Division by 9 12. Number Riddles 13. Ten Steps to be Math Smart 14. Shortcuts a la Trachtenberg 15. Geometrical Quickies 1 16. Geometrical Quickies 2 17. Geometrical Quickies 3 18. (Sugar + Coffee) + Milk = Sugar + (Coffee + Milk) 19. Applications of Number Laws 20. Law of One 21. Distributive Law 22. More Applications of Distributive Law 23. The Joy of Guesstimation 24. Are You a Fermi Disciple? 25. Bravo Singapore 26. Lightning Calculators 27. Geometrical Quickies 4 28. Some Calculator Quickies Answers & Solutions Bibliography & References Type of e-book: Nonfiction, problem solving, recreational, Singapore math, trick questions Audiences: Suitable for Grades 4-7 (or Primary 4-7 levels)