Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Books

Follow

• 

  On Examples and Classification of Frobenius Objects in Rel

  Ivan Contreras, Adele Long, Sophia Marx, and Rajan Amit Mehta

  This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Higher Structures in Topology, Geometry, and Physics, held virtually on March 26–27, 2022.

  The articles give a snapshot survey of the current topics surrounding the mathematical formulation of field theories. There is an intricate interplay between geometry, topology, and algebra which captures these theories. The hallmark are higher structures, which one can consider as the secondary algebraic or geometric background on which the theories are formulated. The higher structures considered in the volume are generalizations of operads, models for conformal field theories, string topology, open/closed field theories, BF/BV formalism, actions on Hochschild complexes and related complexes, and their geometric and topological aspects.

• 

  Do Plants Know Math? Unwinding the Story of Plant Spirals, from Leonardo da Vinci to Now

  Stéphane Douady, Jacques Dumais, Christophe Golé, and Nancy Pick

  Charles Darwin was driven to distraction by plant spirals, growing so exasperated that he once begged a friend to explain the mystery “if you wish to save me from a miserable death.” The legendary naturalist was hardly alone in feeling tormented by these patterns. Plant spirals captured the gaze of Leonardo da Vinci and became Alan Turing’s final obsession. This book tells the stories of the physicists, mathematicians, and biologists who found themselves magnetically drawn to Fibonacci spirals in plants, seeking an answer to why these beautiful and seductive patterns occur in botanical forms as diverse as pine cones, cabbages, and sunflowers.

  Do Plants Know Math? takes you down through the centuries to explore how great minds have been captivated and mystified by Fibonacci patterns in nature. It presents a powerful new geometrical solution, little known outside of scientific circles, that sheds light on why regular and irregular spiral patterns occur. Along the way, the book discusses related plant geometries such as fractals and the fascinating way that leaves are folded inside of buds. Your neurons will crackle as you begin to see the connections. This book will inspire you to look at botanical patterns—and the natural world itself—with new eyes.

  Featuring hundreds of gorgeous color images, Do Plants Know Math? includes a dozen creative hands-on activities and even spiral-plant recipes, encouraging readers to explore and celebrate these beguiling patterns for themselves.

• 

  The Baseball Mysteries: Challenging Puzzles for Logical Detectives

  Jerry Butters and James Marston Henle

  The Baseball Mysteries: Challenging Puzzles for Logical Detectives is a book of baseball puzzles, logical baseball puzzles. To jump in, all you need is logic and a casual fan's knowledge of the game. The puzzles are solved by reasoning from the rules of the game and a few facts.

  The logic in the puzzles is like legal reasoning. A solution must argue from evidence (the facts) and law (the rules). Unlike legal arguments, however, a solution must reach an unassailable conclusion.

  There are many puzzle books. But there's nothing remotely like this book. The puzzles here, while rigorously deductive, are firmly attached to actual events, to struggles that are reported in the papers every day.

  The puzzles offer a unique and scintillating connection between abstract logic and gritty reality.

  Actually, this book offers the reader an unlimited number of puzzles. Once you've solved a few of the challenges here, every boxscore you see in the papers or online is a new puzzle! It can be anywhere from simple, to complex, to impossible.

  For anyone who enjoys logical puzzles For anyone interested in legal reasoning For anyone who loves the game of baseball.