About this book

Discovering Mathematics with Mathematica provides a new approach to teaching the powerful Mathematica programming language. The book focuses squarely on investigating meaningful mathematical problems and introduces the Mathematica techniques only as they are needed for the problem under discussion. It actively engages the student in the discovery process and shows that mathematics is a living subject with much remaining to be uncovered. By a careful choice and ordering of material, the book allows for and encourages the development expertise in using the Mathematica language.

Furthermore, since the programming is learned in conjunction with specific problems, the student is able to apply the techniques learned immediately and also to build on them in later applications. This is in fact how most mathematical researchers master computer languages, by solving problems they are interested in.

Discovering Mathematics with Mathematica was developed over several semesters in a computer laboratory setting at Queens College, City University of New York, and it is suitable for mathematics majors, mathematics education majors, and graduate students, as well as students from the sciences and social sciences who wish to learn about using Mathematica. It makes an ideal enrichment resource for high school students who are interested in working on mathematics projects.

The topics investigated include the Josephus problem; the 3x + 1, digit cube sum, and other fixed point and cycle function problems; Fibonacci number and other recursion problems, primes, composites, and gcd; and postage stamp problems; calculating the digits of ; topics related to impartial games problems; and the "lights out" puzzle.

About the authors

Robert Cowen is a Professor of Mathematics at Queens College, CUNY. His research interests are logic, set theory, graph theory, theoretical computer science, and the relation of these subjects to each other. A list of his publications can be found on his web page: http://home.nyc.rr.com/rcowen/. He actively promotes the use of Mathematica by writing articles and giving lectures. Robert was one of the founders of the Mathematica Laboratory at Queens.

John W. Kennedy teaches mathematics at Queens College, CUNY. His research interests are, graph theory, combinatorics, and their applications to theoretical chemistry and physics. He actively encourages the participation of students in mathematics research. He is a founding editor of Graph Theory Notes of New York, published by the New York Academy of Sciences.