Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
This is not a textbook on school mathematics, but a collection of somewhat uncommon problems in elementary arithmetic, algebra, geometry and probability theory. Most of the problems in the text are grouped under various categories, as mentioned in the ‘Contents’. A large majority of the problems is of ‘Puzzle’ variety, i.e., clever application of elementary knowledge of mathematics and common sense logic, rather than any tools of advanced mathematics, are required to solve these problems. The arrangement of the problems does not follow any graded pattern; so any problem can be attempted without solving the previous ones. Each problem is followed by asterisk mark(s), signifying the level of difficulty, viz., easy (*), moderate (**) and tough (***).
The section ‘Historically Famous Problems’ containing 25 problems, hopefully, gives a glimpse into how the great mathematical minds work. Some very special theorems and results in elementary mathematics (normally not mentioned in school textbooks), which can be regarded as mathematical gems and curiosities, are also included in this section. The difficulty levels of these problems have not been identified.
Detailed solutions, sometimes with alternative solutions, are included for all the problems.
The list of problems and their solutions is followed by four appendices. Appendix I contains the general methodology of solving linear Diophantine equations in two variables. This topic is not covered in high school mathematics, but solutions to a number of puzzles finally require solving such equations.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.