Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning PDF Author: George Polya
Publisher: Lushena Books
ISBN: 9781639235667
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This two volume classic comprises two titles: "Patterns of Plausible Inference" and "Induction and Analogy in Mathematics". 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, Polya shows how even the 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 be given, 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 no proved until much later. In the same way, solutions to problems can be guessed, and a god guesser is much more likely to find a correct solution. This work might have been called "How to Become a Good Guesser."-From the Dust Jacket.

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning PDF Author: George Polya
Publisher: Lushena Books
ISBN: 9781639235667
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This two volume classic comprises two titles: "Patterns of Plausible Inference" and "Induction and Analogy in Mathematics". 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, Polya shows how even the 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 be given, 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 no proved until much later. In the same way, solutions to problems can be guessed, and a god guesser is much more likely to find a correct solution. This work might have been called "How to Become a Good Guesser."-From the Dust Jacket.

Patterns of Plausible Inference

Patterns of Plausible Inference PDF Author: George Pólya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691080062
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Get Book Here

Book Description
A guide to the practical art of plausible reasoning, this book has relevance in every field of intellectual activity. Professor Polya, a world-famous mathematician from Stanford University, uses mathematics to show how hunches and guesses play an important part in even the most rigorously deductive science. He explains how solutions to problems can be guessed at; good guessing is often more important than rigorous deduction in finding correct solutions. Vol. II, on Patterns of Plausible Inference, attempts to develop a logic of plausibility. What makes some evidence stronger and some weaker? How does one seek evidence that will make a suspected truth more probable? These questions involve philosophy and psychology as well as mathematics.

Mathematics by Experiment

Mathematics by Experiment PDF Author: Jonathan Borwein
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439865361
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
This revised and updated second edition maintains the content and spirit of the first edition and includes a new chapter, "Recent Experiences", that provides examples of experimental mathematics that have come to light since the publication of the first edition in 2003. For more examples and insights, Experimentation in Mathematics: Computational P

Induction_And_Analogy_In_Mathematics_1_

Induction_And_Analogy_In_Mathematics_1_ PDF Author: George Polya
Publisher: Hassell Street Press
ISBN: 9781014400321
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book Here

Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Mathematical Discovery on Understanding, Learning, and Teaching Problem Solving

Mathematical Discovery on Understanding, Learning, and Teaching Problem Solving PDF Author: George Pólya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9784871878319
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
George Polya was a Hungarian mathematician. Born in Budapest on 13 December 1887, his original name was Polya Gyorg. He wrote perhaps the most famous book of mathematics ever written, namely "How to Solve It." However, "How to Solve It" is not strictly speaking a math book. It is a book about how to solve problems of any kind, of which math is just one type of problem. The same techniques could in principle be used to solve any problem one encounters in life (such as how to choose the best wife ). Therefore, Polya wrote the current volume to explain how the techniques set forth in "How to Solve It" can be applied to specific areas such as geometry.

Experimentation in Mathematics

Experimentation in Mathematics PDF Author: Jonathan M. Borwein
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439864195
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
New mathematical insights and rigorous results are often gained through extensive experimentation using numerical examples or graphical images and analyzing them. Today computer experiments are an integral part of doing mathematics. This allows for a more systematic approach to conducting and replicating experiments. The authors address the role of

Street-Fighting Mathematics

Street-Fighting Mathematics PDF Author: Sanjoy Mahajan
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262265591
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Argument of Mathematics

The Argument of Mathematics PDF Author: Andrew Aberdein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400765347
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book Here

Book Description
Written by experts in the field, this volume presents a comprehensive investigation into the relationship between argumentation theory and the philosophy of mathematical practice. Argumentation theory studies reasoning and argument, and especially those aspects not addressed, or not addressed well, by formal deduction. The philosophy of mathematical practice diverges from mainstream philosophy of mathematics in the emphasis it places on what the majority of working mathematicians actually do, rather than on mathematical foundations. The book begins by first challenging the assumption that there is no role for informal logic in mathematics. Next, it details the usefulness of argumentation theory in the understanding of mathematical practice, offering an impressively diverse set of examples, covering the history of mathematics, mathematics education and, perhaps surprisingly, formal proof verification. From there, the book demonstrates that mathematics also offers a valuable testbed for argumentation theory. Coverage concludes by defending attention to mathematical argumentation as the basis for new perspectives on the philosophy of mathematics. ​

What Is Mathematical Logic?

What Is Mathematical Logic? PDF Author: J. N. Crossley
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486151522
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Get Book Here

Book Description
A serious introductory treatment geared toward non-logicians, this survey traces the development of mathematical logic from ancient to modern times and discusses the work of Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Heisenberg, Dirac, and others. 1972 edition.

Towards a Philosophy of Real Mathematics

Towards a Philosophy of Real Mathematics PDF Author: David Corfield
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139436392
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this ambitious study, David Corfield attacks the widely held view that it is the nature of mathematical knowledge which has shaped the way in which mathematics is treated philosophically and claims that contingent factors have brought us to the present thematically limited discipline. Illustrating his discussion with a wealth of examples, he sets out a variety of approaches to new thinking about the philosophy of mathematics, ranging from an exploration of whether computers producing mathematical proofs or conjectures are doing real mathematics, to the use of analogy, the prospects for a Bayesian confirmation theory, the notion of a mathematical research programme and the ways in which new concepts are justified. His inspiring book challenges both philosophers and mathematicians to develop the broadest and richest philosophical resources for work in their disciplines and points clearly to the ways in which this can be done.