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Mathematics is Beautiful

Suggestions for people between 9 and 99 years to look at and explore

  • The book offers a wealth of material and suggestions for research, experimentation and investigation from a wide range of mathematical fields

  • Almost no knowledge is required, only curiosity about own discoveries and thoughts

  • "Solutions" on author website: https://mathematik-ist-schoen.jimdo.com/mathematics-is-beautiful/

  • It is suitable as a gift, as a resource for teachers interested in mathematics or as a prize in mathematics competitions

Buying options

eBook USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-662-62689-4
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. Regular Polygons and Stars

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 1-22
  3. Patterns of Colored Stones

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 23-55
  4. Circles and Circular Rings

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 79-90
  5. Pentominoes and Similar Puzzles

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 91-102
  6. Curve Stitching

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 103-119
  7. Calculating with Square Numbers—Number Cycles

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 121-138
  8. Partitions of Regular Polygons

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 139-153
  9. Weighing in the Ternary Numeral System

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 155-162
  10. Tessellation of Regular 2n-Sided Figures with Rhombi

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 163-178
  11. Geometric Figures on Grid Paper

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 179-204
  12. Sum of Spots

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 205-232
  13. The Missing Square

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 233-251
  14. Kissing Circles

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 271-294
  15. Sums of Powers of Consecutive Natural Numbers

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 295-321
  16. The Pythagorean Theorem

    • Heinz Klaus Strick
    Pages 323-357
  17. Back Matter

    Pages 359-366

About this book

In 17 chapters, this book attempts to deal with well-known and less well-known topics in mathematics. This is done in a vivid way and therefore the book contains a wealth of colour illustrations. It deals with stars and polygons, rectangles and circles, straight and curved lines, natural numbers, square numbers and much more. If you look at the illustrations, you will discover plenty of exciting and beautiful things in mathematics.

The book offers a variety of suggestions to think about what is depicted and to experiment in order to make and check your own assumptions. For many topics, no (or only few) prerequisites from school lessons are needed. It is an important concern of the book that young people find their way to mathematics and that readers whose school days are some time ago discover new things. The numerous references to internet sites and further literature help in this respect. "Solutions" to the suggestions interspersed in the individual sections can be downloaded from the Springer website. 

The book was thus written for everyone who enjoys mathematics or who would like to understand why the book bears this title. It is also aimed at teachers who want to give their students additional or new motivation to learn.

This book is a translation of the original German 2nd edition Mathematik ist schön by Heinz Klaus Strick, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature in 2019. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). In the subsequent editing, the author, with the friendly support of John O'Connor, St Andrews University, Scotland, tried to make it closer to a conventional translation. Still, the book may read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

Keywords

  • Elementary Mathematics
  • Geometry
  • Number Theory
  • Fractals
  • Combinatorics
  • Recreational Mathematics

Authors and Affiliations

  • Leverkusen, Germany

    Heinz Klaus Strick

About the author

Heinz Klaus Strick studied mathematics and physics at the University of Cologne. For 37 years he was a teacher at a grammar school in Leverkusen, and for the last 21 years he was also headmaster of the school. He explains why mathematics is beautiful through his didactic essays, textbooks, lectures and teaching assignments at various universities and, last but not least, through his mathematics calendar (www.mathematik-ist-schoen.de). For his activities he was awarded the Archimedes Prize of MNU (Association for the promotion of STEM teaching) in 2002.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Mathematics is Beautiful

  • Book Subtitle: Suggestions for people between 9 and 99 years to look at and explore

  • Authors: Heinz Klaus Strick

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-62689-4

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Mathematics and Statistics, Mathematics and Statistics (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-662-62688-7Published: 25 June 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-662-62689-4Published: 24 June 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 366

  • Number of Illustrations: 53 b/w illustrations, 485 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Mathematics

Buying options

eBook USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-662-62689-4
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)