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When Least Is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible
 
 

When Least Is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible (Paperback)

by Paul J. Nahin (Author) "This book has been written from the practical point of view of the engineer, and so you'll see few rigorous proofs on any of the..." (more)
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Customers buy this book with Chases and Escapes: The Mathematics of Pursuit and Evasion by Paul J. Nahin

When Least Is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible + Chases and Escapes: The Mathematics of Pursuit and Evasion
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Product Description

Review
This book was terrific fun to read! I thought I would skim the chapters to write my review, but I was hooked by the preface, and read through the first 100 pages in one sitting. . . . [Nahin shows] obvious delight and enjoyment--he is having fun and it is contagious.
(Bonnie Shulman MAA Online )

When Least is Best is clearly the result of immense effort. . . . [Nahin] just seems to get better and better. . . . The book is really a popular book of mathematics that touches on a broad range of problems associated with optimization.
(Dennis S. Bernstein IEEE Control Systems Magazine )

[When Least is Best is] a wonderful sourcebook from projects and is just plain fun to read.
(Choice )

This book is highly recommended.
(Clark Kimberling Mathematical Intelligener )

A valuable and stimulating introduction to problems that have fascinated mathematicians and physicists for millennia.
(D.R. Wilkins Contemporary Physics )

Nahin delivers maximal mathematical enjoyment with minimal perplexity and boredom. . . . [He lets] general readers in on the thrill of riding high-school geometry and algebra to breakthrough insights. . . . A refreshingly lucid and humanizing approach to mathematics.
(Booklist )

Anyone with a modest command of calculus, a curiosity about how mathematics developed, and a pad of paper for calculations will enjoy Nahin's lively book. His enthusiasm is infectious, his writing style is active and fluid, and his examples always have a point. . . . [H]e loves to tell stories, so even the familiar is enjoyably refreshed.
(Donald R. Sherbert SIAM Review )

Review
This is a delightful account of how the concepts of maxima, minima, and differentiation evolved with time. The level of mathematical sophistication is neither abstract nor superficial and it should appeal to a wide audience.
(Ali H. Sayed, University of California, Los Angeles )

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This book has been written from the practical point of view of the engineer, and so you'll see few rigorous proofs on any of the pages that follow. Read the first page
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When Least Is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible
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