Product Description
A major aspect of mathematical training and its benefit to society is the ability to use logic to solve problems. The American Mathematics Competitions have been given for more than fifty years to millions of students. This book considers the basic ideas behind the solutions to the majority of these problems, and presents examples and exercises from past exams to illustrate the concepts. Anyone preparing for the Mathematical Olympiads will find many useful ideas here, but people generally interested in logical problem solving should also find the problems and their solutions stimulating. The book can be used either for self-study or as topic-oriented material and samples of problems for practice exams. Useful reading for anyone who enjoys solving mathematical problems, and equally valuable for educators or parents who have children with mathematical interest and ability. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

get it
I bought this book after I read reviews here.
It was OK.
No doubt, it provides a short, sweet review of major topics in algebra, trigonometry,probability, and combinatorics. Yet I felt that the book could be better. For example, it would be nice to make it thicker, fill it with more puzzles, and add challenging problems. In present condition, it glides over the surface without intention to dive deeper. It should be recommended to middle school students.

But, I can be wrong. You see, I am a college student who decided to review high school material to prepare for Math Olympics. Honestly, Barron's SAT review books helped me to accomplish this task much better than First Steps for Math Olympians. It might help you, too.

Get it anyway if money is not an issue. This book is an easy read. It might give you a different perspective on familiar topics.

An excellent source of topical and practice material for students preparing for the AMC exams
For two years, I was the primary organizer of having the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) exams on campus and found the students taking the tests to be enthusiastic and eager to do well. Mathematics is like any other human skill in that it can and must be practiced if you expect to succeed. The mathematical background used to create the AMC tests is well known and Faires has a great deal of experience with the testing structure.
This book contains a series of chapters of background material for the AMC exams. Each chapter has a brief introduction to a topic with explanations of the basic definitions, theorems and their consequences. This is followed by a small set of worked examples and then exercises with solutions. These exercises are presented in the format of the AMC questions and most of them are from earlier exams.
The chapter topics are:

*) Arithmetic ratios
*) Polynomials and their zeros
*) Exponentials and radicals
*) Defined functions and operations
*) Triangle geometry
*) Circle geometry
*) Polygons
*) Counting
*) Probability
*) Prime decomposition
*) Number theory
*) Sequences and series
*) Statistics
*) Trigonometry
*) Three-dimensional geometry
*) Functions
*) Logarithms
*) Complex numbers

With material taken directly from years of AMC exams, this book is the best place for team coaches to extract study material for their team.

As it says: First Steps
This is a good source to start a serious training for mathematical competitions, but as it says, it gives you the first step. Should be enough for those who just look to improve their AMC scores significantly, but not so useful for those thinking or wanting to participate on IMO, APMO or similar competition.

For the level it has, I feel it is somewhat overpriced, but besides that, it's a good book.

Road begins here.
Fancy being a math olympian? This book could serve as your very entrance leading to your success. Just read it page after page and you'll not regret buying it, or being bought by some uncles or aunties. After all, Thanksgiving Day's coming. Who wouldn't buy their little ones some meaningful gift?

A great buy, it is worth every dollar
This book is a great book. This book starts at the beginning (in this case proportions) in very easy format to follow and easy to understand. As they come with practice AMC 10 and 12 problems they will hone your understanding of the material. This book is great for beginners a great companionship for those who have Art of Problem Solving by Richard Ruscyzk.

top marks! ... Read more

Product Description
Presented in this volume is a class of deterministic models describing the dynamics of two plant species whose characteristics are common to the majority of annual plants. These models were developed in response to four major questions on the long-term outcomes of binary mixtures of plant species--is ultimate coexistence possible?If not, which strain will win? Does the mixture approach an equilibrium? If so, how long does the mixture take to attain it?In the particular case study modeled, the species involved are two pastural strains whose dynamics have critical agricultural and economic implications for the areas in which they are found, including North America, the Mediterranean region and Australia. These mathematical studies will be valuable to mathematical biologists, botanists, botanists interested in population dynamics, and graduate students in these areas. ... Read more

Product Description
The Art of Problem Solving, Volume 1, is the classic problem solving textbook used by many successful MATHCOUNTS programs, and have been an important building block for students who, like the authors, performed well enough on the American Mathematics Contest series to qualify for the Math Olympiad Summer Program which trains students for the United States International Math Olympiad team. Volume 1 is appropriate for students just beginning in math contests. MATHCOUNTS and novice high school students particularly have found it invaluable. Although the Art of Problem Solving is widely used by students preparing for mathematics competitions, the book is not just a collection of tricks. The emphasis on learning and understanding methods rather than memorizing formulas enables students to solve large classes of problems beyond those presented in the book.Speaking of problems, the Art of Problem Solving, Volume 1, contains over 500 examples and exercises culled from such contests as MATHCOUNTS, the Mandelbrot Competition, the AMC tests, and ARML. Full solutions (not just answers!) are available for all the problems in the solution manual. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

excellent resource for math competitions
[...] Volume 1 is well suited not merely for students just beginning in math contests, but also students seeking to follow an enquiry based and problem-solving approach to learning the foundations of mathematics. You can get the book and the solutions manual for $[...] the-art-of-problem-solving-volume-1-text-and-solutions

Great book, but don't buy it here.
This is a great introduction to mathematical topics from a problem solving perspective. However, DO NOT buy it from here. You can get the book and solution manual for $42 at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Books/AoPS_B_Texts_FAQ.php

A wonderful collection of problem solving topics!
I bought this book to do math with my children, and to brush up on a few of the missing pieces in my own background.It has been a wonderful resource.The topics are covered in fresh ways that lead to insights into the various subjects, and the problem sets provide excellent practice for each subject.The problems are not just the routine problems you find in regular school textbooks - they force you to bring together ideas from several areas and think more deeply about the topics.I would strongly recommend volumes 1 and 2 to any student wanting to get a broad background for dealing with challenging problems at the middle school to high school levels. ... Read more

Product Description
Arkadii Slinko, now at the University of Auckland, was one of the leading figures of the USSR Mathematical Olympiad Committee during the last years before democratisation. This book brings together the problems and solutions of the last four years of the All-Union Mathematics Olympiads. Not only are the problems and solutions highly expository but the book is worth reading alone for the fascinating history of mathematics competitions to be found in the introduction. ... Read more

Product Description
Twenty useful problem solving skills for the middle school math competition: Mathcounts. This book contains twenty chapters. Each chapter details a problem solving skill commonly used in Mathcounts competitions. Each chapter consists of three parts: (1) basic skill and knowledge, (2) related problems, and (3) detailed solutions to the problems. ... Read more

Product Description
If you'd like to summer on a glacier in Alaska or a rain forest in Ecuador, work with scientists on wildlife tracking or find yourself aboard a research vessel in the Pacific, this is the book for you. All material presented has been drawn from the programs' informational publications and is as up-to-date as possible. Complete, easy-to-follow listings include descriptions, qualification requirements, information on housing and costs, credits given, contact names, addresses, application deadlines and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, though a little old
This is a great resource, though it is starting to get a bit out of date.For example, it lists the Thacher Summer Science Program.That program has moved from Thacher School.It now has two campuses, one in Ojai, CA at a school a few miles from Thacher and the other in Socorro, NM.The contact information has also changed (see summerscience .org).It would be great to see a new edition of this book. ... Read more

Product Description
This series provides broad coverage of the Life Processes curriculum for Key Stage 3 Science. Each title presents detailed information on the main concepts and theories of each subject area. In addition, the books stress the key features of science at this level - scientific enquiry, use of ideas and evidence, planning, evaluation and investigation. It includes easy to understand information books for use alongside difficult textbooks; contains information on the most recent developments and likely advances in future research; packed full of photographs and artwork to explain difficult subjects; and includes case studies of key experiments and discoveries. ... Read more

Product Description
This book uses fundamental ideas in dynamical systems to answer questions of a biological nature, in particular, questions about the behavior of populations given a relatively few hypotheses about the nature of their growth and interaction. The principal subject treated is that of coexistence under certain parameter ranges, while asymptotic methods are used to show competitive exclusion in other parameter ranges. Finally, some problems in genetics are posed and analyzed as problems in nonlinear ordinary differential equations. ... Read more

Product Description

All papers have been peer-reviewed. The Conference was a program of invited lectures and selected contributed papers of interest to academic communities, educators and students both at graduate and undergraduate levels. Topics are centered on information processing and coding in the brain and in neuronal systems, on quantitative approaches to ecology and population dynamics, and on bioinformatics. Some talks also focus on current problems in various other areas of applications of mathematics and computational tools to the life sciences.

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Mississippi Business Journal, published by Thomson Gale on July 30, 2007. The length of the article is 1024 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hands-on learning sharpens math, science, tech skills.(Focus: Education, HR & Workforce Training)
Author: C. Richard Cotton
Publication: Mississippi Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 30, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 29Issue: 31Page: 18(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more