Alexander Soifer – författare

This second edition of Alexander Soifer’s How Does One Cut a Triangle? demonstrates how different areas of mathematics can be juxtaposed in the solution of a given problem. The author employs geometry, algebra, trigonometry, linear algebra, and rings to develop a miniature model of mathematical research.

How Does One Cut a Triangle? contains dozens of proofs and counterexamples to a variety of problems, such as a pool table problem, a fifty-dollar problem, a five-point problem, and a joint problem. By proving these examples, the author demonstrates that research is a collection of mathematical ideas that have been developed throughout the course of history.

The author brings mathematics alive by giving the reader a taste of what mathematicians do. His book presents open problems that invite the reader to play the role of the mathematician. By doing so, the author skillfully inspires the discovery of uncharted solutions using his solutions as a guide.

Over the past two decades, the once small local Colorado Springs Mathematics Olympiad, founded by the author himself, has now become an annual state-wide competition, hosting over one-thousand high school contenders each year.

This updated printing of the first edition of Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: the First Twenty Years and Further Explorations offers an interesting history of the competition as well as an outline of all the problems and solutions that have been a part of the contest over the years. Many of the essay problems were inspired by Russian mathematical folklore and written to suit the young audience; for example, the 1989 Sugar problem was written as a pleasant Lewis Carroll-like story. Some other entertaining problems involve old Victorian map colorings, King Arthur and the knights of the round table, rooks in space, Santa Claus and his elves painting planes, football for 23, and even the Colorado Springs subway system.

The book is more than just problems, their solutions, and event statistics; it tells a compelling story involving the lives of those who have been part of the Olympiad from every perspective.

–Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey

LEV Foundation

Bartel Leendert van der Waerden made major contributions to algebraic geometry, abstract algebra, quantum mechanics, and other fields. He liberally published on the history of mathematics. His 2-volume work Modern Algebra is one of the most influential and popular mathematical books ever written. It is therefore surprising that no monograph has been dedicated to his life and work. Van der Waerden’s record is complex. In attempting to understand his life, the author assembled thousands of documents from numerous archives in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States which revealed fascinating and often surprising new information about van der Waerden. Soifer traces Van der Waerden’s early years in a family of great Dutch public servants, his life as professor in Leipzig during the entire Nazi period, and his personal and professional friendship with one of the great physicists Werner Heisenberg. We encounter heroes and villains and a much more numerous group in between these two extremes. One of them is the subject of this book.

Soifer’s journey through a long list of archives, combined with an intensive correspondence, had uncovered numerous details of Van der Waerden’s German intermezzo that raised serious questions and reproaches.

Dirk van Dalen (Philosophy, Utrecht University)

Professor Soifer’s book implicates the anthropologists’ and culture historians’ core interest in the evolution of culture and in the progress of human evolution itself on this small contested planet.

James W. Fernandez (Anthropology, University of Chicago)

The book is fascinating. Professor Soifer has done a great service to the discipline of history, as well as deepening our understanding of the 20th century.

Peter D. Johnson, Jr. (Mathematics, Auburn University)

This book is an important contribution to the history of the twentieth century, and reads like a novel with an ever-fascinating cast of characters.

Harold W. Kuhn (Mathematics, Princeton University)

This is a most impressive and important book. It is written in an engaging, very personal style and challenges the reader’s ability of moral and historical judgment. While it is not always written in the style of ‘objective’ professional historiography, it satisfies very high standards of scholarly documentation. Indeed the book contains a wealth of source material that allows the reader to form a highly detailed picture of the events and personalities discussed in the book. As an exemplar of historical writing in a broader sense it can compete with any other historical book.

Moritz Epple (History of Mathematics, Frankfurt University)

Now in its third decade, the Colorado Mathematical Olympiad (CMO), founded by the author, has become an annual state-wide competition, hosting many hundreds of middle and high school contestants each year. This book presents a year-by-year history of the CMO from 2004–2013 with all the problems from the competitions and their solutions. Additionally, the book includes 10 further explorations, bridges from solved Olympiad problems to ‘real’ mathematics, bringing young readers to the forefront of various fields of mathematics. This book contains more than just problems, solutions, and event statistics — it tells a compelling story involving the lives of those who have been part of the Olympiad, their reminiscences of the past and successes of the present.

I am almost speechless facing the ingenuity and inventiveness demonstrated in the problems proposed in the third decade of these Olympics. However, equally impressive is the drive and persistence of the originator and living soul of them. It is hard for me to imagine the enthusiasm and commitment needed to work singlehandedly on such an endeavor over several decades.

After decades of hunting for Olympiad problems, and struggling to create Olympiad problems, he has become an extraordinary connoisseur and creator of Olympiad problems.  The Olympiad problems were very good, from the beginning, but in the third decade the problems have become extraordinarily good.  Every brace of 5 problems is a work of art.  The harder individual problems range in quality from brilliant to work-of-genius… The same goes for the “Further Explorations” part of the book.  Great mathematics and mathematical questions are immersed in a sauce of fascinating anecdote and reminiscence.  If you could have only one book to enjoy while stranded on a desert island, this would be a good choice.  

Like Gauss, Alexander Soifer would not hesitate to inject Eureka! at the right moment. Like van der Waerden, he can transform a dispassionate exercise in logic into a compelling account of sudden insights and ultimate triumph.

— Cecil Rousseau Chair, USA Mathematical Olympiad Committee

A delightful feature of the book is that in the second part more related problems are discussed. Some of them are still unsolved.

—Paul Erdős

The book is a gold mine of brilliant reasoning with special emphasis on the power and beauty of coloring proofs. Strongly recommended to both serious and recreational mathematicians on all levels of expertise.

—Martin Gardner

This book gathers the best presentations from the Topic Study Group 30: Mathematics Competitions at ICME-13 in Hamburg, and some from related groups, focusing on the field of working with gifted students. Each of the chapters includes not only original ideas, but also original mathematical problems and their solutions. The book is a valuable resource for researchers in mathematics education, secondary and college mathematics teachers around the globe as well as their gifted students.