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The $3x+1$ problem, or Collatz problem, concerns the following seemingly innocent arithmetic procedure applied to integers: If an integer $x$ is odd then “multiply by three and add one”, while if it is even then “divide by two”. The $3x+1$ problem asks whether, starting from any positive integer, repeating this procedure over and over will eventually reach the number 1. Despite its simple appearance, this problem is unsolved. Generalizations of the problem are known to be undecidable, and the problem itself is believed to be extraordinarily difficult. This book reports on what is known on this problem. It consists of a collection of papers, which can be read independently of each oth...
This 2003 book provides an analysis of combinatorial games - games not involving chance or hidden information. It contains a fascinating collection of articles by some well-known names in the field, such as Elwyn Berlekamp and John Conway, plus other researchers in mathematics and computer science, together with some top game players. The articles run the gamut from theoretical approaches (infinite games, generalizations of game values, 2-player cellular automata, Alpha-Beta pruning under partial orders) to other games (Amazons, Chomp, Dot-and-Boxes, Go, Chess, Hex). Many of these advances reflect the interplay of the computer science and the mathematics. The book ends with a bibliography by A. Fraenkel and a list of combinatorial game theory problems by R. K. Guy. Like its predecessor, Games of No Chance, this should be on the shelf of all serious combinatorial games enthusiasts.
This fascinating look at combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information, offers updates on standard games such as Go and Hex, on impartial games such as Chomp and Wythoff's Nim, and on aspects of games with infinitesimal values, plus analyses of the complexity of some games and puzzles and surveys on algorithmic game theory, on playing to lose, and on coping with cycles. The volume is rounded out with an up-to-date bibliography by Fraenkel and, for readers eager to get their hands dirty, a list of unsolved problems by Guy and Nowakowski. Highlights include some of Siegel's groundbreaking work on loopy games, the unveiling by Friedman and Landsberg of the use of renormalization to give very intriguing results about Chomp, and Nakamura's "Counting Liberties in Capturing Races of Go." Like its predecessors, this book should be on the shelf of all serious games enthusiasts.
Is Nine-Men Morris, in the hands of perfect players, a win for white or for black - or a draw? Can king, rook, and knight always defeat king and two knights in chess? What can Go players learn from economists? What are nimbers, tinies, switches and minies? This book deals with combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. Their study is at once old and young: though some games, such as chess, have been analyzed for centuries, the first full analysis of a nontrivial combinatorial game (Nim) only appeared in 1902. The first part of this book will be accessible to anyone, regardless of background: it contains introductory expositions, reports of unusual tournaments, and a fascinating article by John H. Conway on the possibly everlasting contest between an angel and a devil. For those who want to delve more deeply, the book also contains combinatorial studies of chess and Go; reports on computer advances such as the solution of Nine-Men Morris and Pentominoes; and theoretical approaches to such problems as games with many players. If you have read and enjoyed Martin Gardner, or if you like to learn and analyze new games, this book is for you.
"...the great feature of the book is that anyone can read it without excessive head scratching...You'll find plenty here to keep you occupied, amused, and informed. Buy, dip in, wallow." -IAN STEWART, NEW SCIENTIST "...a delightful look at numbers and their roles in everything from language to flowers to the imagination." -SCIENCE NEWS "...a fun and fascinating tour of numerical topics and concepts. It will have readers contemplating ideas they might never have thought were understandable or even possible." -WISCONSIN BOOKWATCH "This popularization of number theory looks like another classic." -LIBRARY JOURNAL
Mathematics is kept alive by the appearance of new, unsolved problems. This book provides a steady supply of easily understood, if not easily solved, problems that can be considered in varying depths by mathematicians at all levels of mathematical maturity. This new edition features lists of references to OEIS, Neal Sloane’s Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, at the end of several of the sections.
On May 16 -20, 1995, approximately 150 mathematicians gathered at the Conference Center of the University of Illinois at Allerton Park for an Inter national Conference on Analytic Number Theory. The meeting marked the approaching official retirement of Heini Halberstam from the mathematics fac ulty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Halberstam has been at the University since 1980, for 8 years as head of the Department of Mathematics, and has been a leading researcher and teacher in number theory for over forty years. The program included invited one hour lectures by G. Andrews, J. Bour gain, J. M. Deshouillers, H. Halberstam, D. R. Heath-Brown, H. Iwaniec, H. L. Montgomery, R. Murty, C. Pomerance, and R. C. Vaughan, and almost one hundred other talks of varying lengths. These volumes comprise contributions from most of the principal speakers and from many of the other participants, as well as some papers from mathematicians who were unable to attend. The contents span a broad range of themes from contemporary number theory, with the majority having an analytic flavor.
Handbook of Mathematical Induction: Theory and Applications shows how to find and write proofs via mathematical induction. This comprehensive book covers the theory, the structure of the written proof, all standard exercises, and hundreds of application examples from nearly every area of mathematics.In the first part of the book, the author discuss