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    Street-Fighting Mathematics

    The Art of Educated Guessing and Opportunistic Problem Solving

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    Author(s)
    Mahajan, Sanjoy
    Language
    English
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    Abstract
    An antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation.In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation.In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems.Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.
    URI
    http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/26090
    Keywords
    mathemetics; problem solving
    ISBN
    9780262514293
    OCN
    1135550088
    Publisher
    The MIT Press
    Publisher website
    https://mitpress.mit.edu/
    Publication date and place
    Cambridge, 2010
    Classification
    Popular and recreational mathematics
    Pages
    152
    Public remark
    21-7-2020 - No DOI registered in CrossRef for ISBN 9780262265591
    Rights
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
    • Imported or submitted locally

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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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