In 2006, an eccentric Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman solved one of the world's greatest intellectual puzzles. The Poincare conjecture is an extremely complex topological problem that had eluded the best minds for over a century. In 2000, the Clay Institute in Boston named it one of seven great unsolved mathematical problems, and promised a million dollars to anyone who could find a solution. Perelman was awarded the prize this year - and declined the money. Journalist Masha Gessen was determined to find out why. Drawing on interviews with Perelman's teachers, classmates, coaches, teammates, and colleagues in Russia and the US - and informed by her own background as a math whiz raised in Russia - she set out to uncover the nature of Perelman's astonishing abilities. In telling his story, Masha Gessen has constructed a gripping and tragic tale that sheds rare light on the unique burden of genius.

Part of the reissued Oxford Classic Texts in the Physical Sciences series, this book was first published in 1983, and has swiftly become one of the great modern classics of relativity theory. It represents a personal testament to the work of the author, who spent several years writing and working-out the entire subject matter. The theory of black holes is the most simple and beautiful consequence of Einstein's relativity theory. At the time of writing there was no physical evidence for the existence of these objects, therefore all that Professor Chandrasekhar used for their construction were modern mathematical concepts of space and time. Since that time a growing body of evidence has pointed to the truth of Professor Chandrasekhar's findings, and the wisdom contained in this book has become fully evident.

This second edition is ideal for classical mechanics courses for first- and second-year undergraduates with foundation skills in mathematics.

"Curves and Surfaces in Geometric Modeling: Theory and Algorithms offers a theoretically unifying understanding of polynomial curves and surfaces as well as an effective approach to implementation that you can apply to your own work as a graduate student, scientist, or practitioner." "The focus here is on blossoming - the process of converting a polynomial to its polar form - as a natural, purely geometric explanation of the behavior of curves and surfaces. This insight is important for more than just its theoretical elegance - the author demonstrates the value of blossoming as a practical algorithmic tool for generating and manipulating curves and surfaces that meet many different criteria. You'll learn to use this and other related techniques drawn from affine geometry for computing and adjusting control points, deriving the continuity conditions for splines, creating subdivision surfaces, and more." "It will be an essential acquisition for readers in many different areas, including computer graphics and animation, robotics, virtual reality, geometric modeling and design, medical imaging, computer vision, and motion planning."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

BROWNIAN MOTION CALCULUS Brownian Motion Calculus presents the basics of Stochastic Calculus with a focus on the valuation of financial derivatives. It is intended as an accessible introduction to the technical literature. The sequence of chapters starts with a description of Brownian motion, the random process which serves as the basic driver of the irregular behaviour of financial quantities. That exposition is based on the easily understood discrete random walk. Thereafter the gains from trading in a random environment are formulated in a discrete-time setting. The continuous-time equivalent requires a new concept, the Itō stochastic integral. Its construction is explained step by step, using the so-called norm of a random process (its magnitude), of which a motivated exposition is given in an Annex. The next topic is Itō’s formula for evaluating stochastic integrals; it is the random process counter part of the well known Taylor formula for functions in ordinary calculus. Many examples are given. These ingredients are then used to formulate some well established models for the evolution of stock prices and interest rates, so-called stochastic differential equations, together with their solution methods. Once all that is in place, two methodologies for option valuation are presented. One uses the concept of a change of probability and the Girsanov transformation, which is at the core of financial mathematics. As this technique is often perceived as a magic trick, particular care has been taken to make the explanation elementary and to show numerous applications. The final chapter discusses how computations can be made more convenient by a suitable choice of the so-called numeraire. A clear distinction has been made between the mathematics that is convenient for a first introduction, and the more rigorous underpinnings which are best studied from the selected technical references. The inclusion of fully worked out exercises makes the book attractive for self study. Standard probability theory and ordinary calculus are the prerequisites. Summary slides for revision and teaching can be found on the book website www.wiley.com/go/brownianmotioncalculus.

Henri Poincaré was one of the greatest mathematicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He revolutionized the field of topology, which studies properties of geometric configurations that are unchanged by stretching or twisting. The Poincaré conjecture lies at the heart of modern geometry and topology, and even pertains to the possible shape of the universe. The conjecture states that there is only one shape possible for a finite universe in which every loop can be contracted to a single point. Poincaré's conjecture is one of the seven "millennium problems" that bring a one-million-dollar award for a solution. Grigory Perelman, a Russian mathematician, has offered a proof that is likely to win the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel prize, in August 2006. He also will almost certainly share a Clay Institute millennium award. In telling the vibrant story of The Poincaré Conjecture, Donal O'Shea makes accessible to general readers for the first time the meaning of the conjecture, and brings alive the field of mathematics and the achievements of generations of mathematicians whose work have led to Perelman's proof of this famous conjecture.

Too much valuable teacher time is devoted to the kind of marking and feedback which does little to improve pupils' learning. This easy to read guide introduces a range of innovative and practical strategies to ensure that assessment genuinely is for learning

A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics uses your familiarity with ideas from programming and software to teach mathematics. You'll learn about the central objects and theorems of mathematics, including graphs, calculus, linear algebra, eigenvalues, optimization, and more. You'll also be immersed in the often unspoken cultural attitudes of mathematics, learning both how to read and write proofs while understanding why mathematics is the way it is. Between each technical chapter is an essay describing a different aspect of mathematical culture, and discussions of the insights and meta-insights that constitute mathematical intuition. As you learn, we'll use new mathematical ideas to create wondrous programs, from cryptographic schemes to neural networks to hyperbolic tessellations. Each chapter also contains a set of exercises that have you actively explore mathematical topics on your own. In short, this book will teach you to engage with mathematics. A Programmer's Introduction to Mathematics is written by Jeremy Kun, who has been writing about math and programming for 10 years on his blog "Math Intersect Programming." As of 2020, he works in datacenter optimization at Google.The second edition includes revisions to most chapters, some reorganized content and rewritten proofs, and the addition of three appendices.

This radical first course on complex analysis brings a beautiful and powerful subject to life by consistently using geometry (not calculation) as the means of explanation. Aimed at undergraduate students in mathematics, physics, and engineering, the book's intuitive explanations, lack of advanced prerequisites, and consciously user-friendly prose style will help students to master the subject more readily than was previously possible. The key to this is the book's use of new geometric arguments in place of the standard calculational ones. These geometric arguments are communicated with the aid of hundreds of diagrams of a standard seldom encountered in mathematical works. A new approach to a classical topic, this work will be of interest to students in mathematics, physics, and engineering, as well as to professionals in these fields.

Was plane geometry your favourite math course in high school? Did you like proving theorems? Are you sick of memorising integrals? If so, real analysis could be your cup of tea. In contrast to calculus and elementary algebra, it involves neither formula manipulation nor applications to other fields of science. None. It is Pure Mathematics, and it is sure to appeal to the budding pure mathematician. In this new introduction to undergraduate real analysis the author takes a different approach from past studies of the subject, by stressing the importance of pictures in mathematics and hard problems. The exposition is informal and relaxed, with many helpful asides, examples and occasional comments from mathematicians like Dieudonne, Littlewood and Osserman. The author has taught the subject many times over the last 35 years at Berkeley and this book is based on the honours version of this course. The book contains an excellent selection of more than 500 exercises.