The Art of Problem Solving

[Ebolamonk3y]

http://www.mualphatheta.org/Links/MAO_Links_Books_Problem_Solving.htm

I think the text is by Mu Alpha Theta... Does anyone know or used this text before? Thanks...

[selfAdjoint]

Read the new book Count Down. It's about the Math Counts program and the math olympics and it details the origin of some of these books. These competitions require the contesants to "think outside the box" about math problems and the books are about how to do that. Not the Polya, though. That's an old one by a leading mathematician of his day.

[mathfanatic]

I have both AoPS books (volumes 1 and 2), and they are very good if you're at all interested in recreational or competition mathematics. They have over 1000 problems from actual competitions (AMC, USAMO, Mandelbrot, MATHCOUNTS, USAMTS, some olympiads), plus lots of examples, and so on.

In other words, good explanations, good problems, good maths.

P.S. Go to http://www.artofproblemsolving.com for more information on the books (including a table of contents) as well as a huge forum for all things mathematical.