The Joy of Mathematics

The vague outline of a book based on ca se histories of suc- cessful scientists emerged slowly in discussions with col- leagues during a decade of exhausting research associated with the creation of an earlier book titled Winning the Games Scien- tists Play. The perception grew to overwhelming proportions that success in science is closely linked to pleasure in the prac- tice of science, but that this simple observation had rarely been emphasized within or outside scientific circles.

This book is about the theory and practice of integer factorization presented in a historic perspective. It describes about twenty algorithms for factoring and a dozen other number theory algorithms that support the factoring algorithms. This book is written for readers who want to learn more about the best methods of factoring integers, many reasons for factoring, and some history of this fascinating subject.

What is the largest number less than 1? If x and y are any of two different positive numbers, which is larger, x2 + y2 or 2xy? What do you get if you cross a cube and an octahedron? Discover the surprising answers as David Wells conclusively proves that: you Are a mathematician