'I will tel! you' the hermit said to Lancelot 'the right of the matter.' Anonymous, The Quest of the Holy Grail Gyorgy Polya's How to Solve It [287] stands as one of the most important contributions to the problem-solving literatme in the twentieth century. Even now, as we move into the new millennium, the book continues tobe a favorite among teachers and students for its instructive heuristics. The first edition of the book appeared in 1945, near the end of the Second World War and a few years before the invention of the transistor. The book was a quick success, and a second edition came out in 1957. How to Solve It is a compendium of approaches for tackling problems as we find them in mathematics. That is, the book provides not only examples of techniques and procedures, but also instruction on how to make analogies, use auxiliary devices, work backwards from the goal to the given, and so forth. Es sentially, the book is an encyclopedia of problem-solving methods to be carried out by hand, but more than that, it is a treatise on how to think about framing and attacking problems.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
The March 2002 issue of ACMs Computing Reviews identifies a review of "How to Solve It" as the best review they published in 2001. The review is then reprinted in its entirety. Reviewer: H. van Dyke Parunak.
Excerpt: Like its predecessor, the new How to Solve It, combines deep mathematical insight with skilled pedagogy. Puzzle lovers will seek out the book for its insightful discussion of many intriguing brain twisters. Students of computational methods will find it an accessible but rigorous introduction to evolutionary algorithms. Teachers will learn from its expositions how to make their own subject matter clearer to their students. Polya would be honored to know that his spirit lives on in the computer age.
From the reviews of the second edition:
"This is an outstanding book. It takes the reader close to the current knowledge frontier . . The book's writing style is lively and educational, and this makes it extremely interesting . . is intended for students and practitioners. . is an excellent choice for a course on heuristics . . One of the most comprehensive views . is provided in this book. It is written to be read and understood . . is a must-read and must-have for anyone engaged in the art of problem solving." (Dimitrios Katsaros, Computing Reviews, April, 2005)
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Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
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Dateigröße
ISBN-13
978-3-662-04131-4 (9783662041314)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-662-04131-4
Schweitzer Klassifikation
I What Are the Ages of My Three Sons?.- 1 Why Are Some Problems Difficult to Solve?.- II How Important Is a Model?.- 2 Basic Concepts.- III What Are the Prices in 7-11?.- 3 Traditional Methods - Part 1.- IV What Are the Numbers?.- 4 Traditional Methods - Part 2.- V What's the Color of the Bear?.- 5 Escaping Local Optima.- VI How Good Is Your Intuition?.- 6 An Evolutionary Approach.- VII One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.- 7 Designing Evolutionary Algorithms.- VIII What Is the Shortest Way?.- 8 The Traveling Salesman Problem.- IX Who Owns the Zebra?.- 9 Constraint-Handling Techniques.- X Can You Tune to the Problem?.- 10 Tuning the Algorithm to the Problem.- XI Can You Mate in Two Moves?.- 11 Time-Varying Environments and Noise.- XII Day of the Week of January 1st.- 12 Neural Networks.- XIII What Was the Length of the Rope?.- 13 Fuzzy Systems.- XIV Do You Like Simple Solutions?.- 14 Hybrid Systems.- 15 Summary.- Appendix A: Probability and Statistics.- A.1 Basic concepts of probability.- A.2 Random variables.- A.2.1 Discrete random variables.- A.2.2 Continuous random variables.- A.3 Descriptive statistics of random variables.- A.4 Limit theorems and inequalities.- A.5 Adding random variables.- A.6 Generating random numbers on a computer.- A.7 Estimation.- A.8 Statistical hypothesis testing.- A.9 Linear regression.- A.10 Summary.- Appendix B: Problems and Projects.- B.1 Trying some practical problems.- B.2 Reporting computational experiments with heuristic methods.- References.
