Professor H. S. Wall (1902-1971) developed Creative Mathematics over a period of many years of working with students at the University of Texas, Austin. His aim was to lead students to develop their mathematical abilities, to help them learn the art of mathematics, and to teach them to create mathematical ideas. This book, according to Wall, 'is not a compendium of mathematical facts and inventions to be read over as a connoisseur of art looks over paintings. It is, instead, a sketchbook in which readers try their hands at mathematical discovery.' In less than two hundred pages, he takes the reader on a stimulating tour starting with numbers, and then moving on to simple graphs, the integral, simple surfaces, successive approximations, linear spaces of simple graphs, and concluding with mechanical systems. The book is self contained, and assumes little formal mathematical background on the part of the reader.
Author(s): H. S. Wall
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 216
Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Foreword ......Page 8
Preface ......Page 12
Contents ......Page 16
Short Biography of H. S. Wall ......Page 18
1 Numbers ......Page 22
2 Ordered Number Pairs ......Page 32
3 Slope ......Page 44
4 Combinations of Simple Graphs ......Page 52
5 Theorems about Simple Graphs ......Page 58
6 The Simple Graphs of Trigonometry ......Page 64
7 The Integral ......Page 76
8 Computation Formulas Obtained by Means of the Integral ......Page 88
9 Simple Graphs Made to Order ......Page 100
10 More about Integrals ......Page 104
11 Simple Surfaces ......Page 114
12 Successive Approximations ......Page 140
13 Linear Spaces of Simple Graphs ......Page 156
14 More about Linear Spaces ......Page 182
15 Mechanical Systems ......Page 196
Integral Tables ......Page 208
Index of Simple Graphs ......Page 210
Glossary of Definitions ......Page 212
