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 under-
graduates 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.

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighting-Mathematics-Educated-
Guessing-Opportunistic/dp/026251429X

Download File Size:2.41 MB

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