What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods

Written for beginners and scholars, for students and teachers, for philosophers and engineers, What is Mathematics? is a sparkling collection of mathematical gems that offers an entertaining and accessible portrait of the mathematical world. Brought up to date with a new chapter by Ian Stewart, this second edition offers new insights into recent mathematical developments and describes proofs of the Four-Color Theorem and Fermat's Last Theorem, problems that were still open when Courant and Robbins wrote this masterpiece, but ones that have since been solved.