Product Description
This is a guide to the practical art of plausible reasoning, particularly in mathematics but also in every field of human activity. Using mathematics as the example par excellence, Professor Polya shows how even that most rigorous deductive discipline is heavily dependent on techniques of guessing, inductive reasoning, and reasoning by analogy. In solving a problem, the answer must be guessed at before a proof can even begin, and guesses are usually made from a knowledge of facts, experience, and hunches. The truly creative mathematician must be a good guesser first and a good prover afterward; many important theorems have been guessed but not proved until much later. In the same way, solutions to problems can be guessed, and a good guesser is much more likely to find a correct solution. This work might have been called "How to Become a Good Guesser."Professor Polya's deep understanding of the psychology of creative mathematics enables him to show the reader how to attack a new problem, how to get at the heart of it, what trains of thought may lead to a solution. There is no magic formula here, but there is much practical wisdom.Volumes I and II together make a coherent work on Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning. Volume I on Induction and Analogy stands by itself as an essential book for anyone interested in mathematical reasoning. Volume II on Patterns of Plausible Inference builds on the examples of Volume I but is not otherwise dependent on it. A more sophisticated reader with some mathematical experience will have no difficulty in reading Volume II independently, though he will probably want to read Volume I afterward. Professor Polya's earlier more elementary book How to Solve It is closely related to Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning and furnishes some background for it. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume completes the publication of the collected papers of George Pólya, one of the most influential mathematicians and teachers of our time. Volumes I (Singularities of Analytic Functions) and II (Location of Zeros) were published in 1974.

Volume IV presents 20 papers on probability, 17 on combinatorics, and 18 on the teaching and learning of mathematics. Pólya has made a number of fundamental contributions to the first two fields, including perhaps the first use of the term "central limit theorem," but his major influence on mathematics has clearly been his approach to pedagogy. Many of the papers throughout these volumes have a strongly pedagogical flavor, but the papers in the third section of this volume focus squarely on the real business of how to do mathematics—how to formulate a problem and then create a solution.

This volume is the twenty-third in the series Mathematicians of Our Time, edited by Gian-Carlo Rota. ... Read more

Product Description
Diagrammatic reasoning is reasoning by means of visual representations. The study of diagrammatic reasoning is about the understanding of concepts and ideas, visualized with the use of diagrams and imagery instead of by linguistic or algebraic means. ... Read more

Product Description
"This is the International Edition. The content is in English, same as US version but different cover. Please DO NOT buy if you can not accept this difference.Ship from Shanghai China, please allow about 3 weeks on the way to US or Europe.Message me if you have any questions." ... Read more

Product Description
"This is the International Edition. The content is in English, same as US version but different cover. Please DO NOT buy if you can not accept this difference.Ship from Shanghai China, please allow about 3 weeks on the way to US or Europe.Message me if you have any questions." ... Read more