The course of lectures on numerical methods (part I) given by the author to students in the numerical third of the course of the mathematics­ mechanics department of Leningrad State University is set down in this volume. Only the topics which, in the opinion of the author, are of the greatest value for numerical methods are considered in this book. This permits making the book comparatively small in size, and, the author hopes, accessible to a sufficiently wide circle of readers. The book may be used not only by students in daily classes, but also by students taking correspondence courses and persons connected with practical computa­ tion who desire to improve their theoretical background. The author is deeply grateful to V. I. Krylov, the organizer ofthe course on numerical methods (part I) at Leningrad State University, for his considerable assistance and constant interest in the work on this book, and also for his attentive review of the manuscript. The author is very grateful to G. P. Akilov and I. K. Daugavet for a series of valuable suggestions and observations. The Author Chapter I NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF EQUATIONS In this chapter, methods for the numerical solution of equations of the form P(x) = 0, will be considered, where P(x) is in general a complex-valued function.

In mathematics we are interested in why a particular formula is true. Intuition and statistical evidence are insufficient, so we need to construct a formal logical proof. The purpose of this book is to describe why such proofs are important, what they are made of, how to recognize valid ones, how to distinguish different kinds, and how to construct them. This book is written for 1st year students with no previous experience of formulating proofs.

The gratifying response to Counterexamples in analysis (CEA) was followed, when the book went out of print, by expressions of dismay from those who were unable to acquire it. The connection of the present volume with CEA is clear, although the sights here are set higher. In the quarter-century since the appearance of CEA, mathematical education has taken some large steps reflected in both the undergraduate and graduate curricula. What was once taken as very new, remote, or arcane is now a well-established part of mathematical study and discourse.

For those fascinated by the abstract universe of mathematics, David Gale's columns in The Mathematical Intelligencer have been a prime source of entertainment. Here Gale's columns are collected for the first time in book form. Encouraged by the magazine's editor, Sheldon Axler, to write on whatever pleased him, Gale ranged far and wide across the field of mathematics but frequently returned to favorite themes: triangles, tilings, the mysterious properties of sequences given by simple recursions, games and paradoxes, and the particular automaton that gives this collection its title, the "automatic ant".

A physicist's efforts to understand the enigma that is quantum mechanics.