A Mathematical Tour introduces readers to a selection of mathematical topics chosen for their centrality, importance, historical significance, and intrinsic appeal and beauty. The book is written to be accessible and interesting to readers with a good grounding in high school level mathematics and a keen sense of intellectual curiosity. Each chapter includes a short history of the topic, statements and discussion of important results, illustrations, user-friendly exercises, and suggestions for further reading. This book is intended to be read for pleasure but could also be used for a Topics course in Mathematics or as a supplementary text in a History of Mathematics course.

Features

• contains a selection of accessible mathematical topics
• exercises that elucidate, and sometimes enlarge on, the topics
• suitable for readers with knowledge of high school mathematics

Denis Bell is a professor of mathematics at the University of North Florida. He was born and raised in London, England, and studied at the Universities of Manchester and Warwick. His scholarship has been recognized by national funding and a Research Professorship at MSRI, Berkeley. He is also a writer of short and flash fiction, with numerous pieces in print in literary journals in the USA and elsewhere.

Chris Bernhardt is a professor emeritus of mathematics at Fairfield University, where he taught for thirty years. He was born and raised in England and studied at the University of Warwick. His books include Turing's Vision: The Birth of Computer Science, Quantum Computing for Everyone and Beautiful Math.