Product Description

"Mathematical Olympiad Treasures" aims at building a bridge between ordinary high school examples and exercises and more sophisticated, intricate and abstract concepts and problems in undergraduate mathematics. The book contains a stimulating collection of problems in the subjects of geometry and trigonometry, algebra, number theory and combinatorics. While it may be considered a sequel to "Mathematical Olympiad Challenges," the focus of "Treasures" is on engaging a wider audience of undergraduates to think creatively in applying techniques and strategies to problems in the real world.

The problems are clustered by topic into self-contained sections. Unlike "Challenges," however, "Treasures" begins with elementary facts, followed by a number of carefully selected problems and an extensive discussion of their solutions. This discussion then leads to more complicated and more intellectually challenging problems as well as their solutions.

Throughout the book students are encouraged to express their ideas, conjectures, and conclusions in writing. The goal is to help readers develop a host of new mathematical tools and strategies that will be useful beyond the classroom and in a number of disciplines.

"Mathematical Olympiad Treasures" reflects the experience of two experienced professors and coaches from the United States and Romanian Olympiad teams.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #829297 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 234 pages

Review

"I took great pleasure in reading Mathematical Olympiad Treasures, by Titu Andreescu and Bogdan Enescu. This book is the fruit of the prodigious activity of two well-known creators of mathematics problems in various mathematical journals....

Treasures is organized in six chapters. The first three deal with problems from algebra, geometry and trigonometry, number theory and combinatorics. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 give the solutions to problems presented in the first three chapters. In all the chapters, the reader can find numerous challenging problems. All featured solutions are interesting, given in increasing level of difficulty; some of them are real gems that will give great satisfaction to any math lover attempting to solve the problems—or even extend them. I believe strongly that Mathematical Olympiad Treasures will reveal the beauty of mathematics to all students, teachers and all math lovers."   —MAA Online

"...this is one of a long recent series of challenging secondary math books, coauthored by Dr. Titu Andreescu and published by Birkhäuser, a series that has definitely enriched the literature on secondary mathematics - a credit to the coauthor and to the wisdom of the editor."   —Zentralblatt

Customer Reviews

Helpful for the experience, but not beginners
I would recommend this book if you have already developed a repretoire for solving olympiad (USAMO, IMO, etc) level problems. This book teaches a couple more interesting startegies to add to your olympiad bag of tricks. However, a beginner to olympiad problems may wish to consider a different book first.

I bought this book this year before my first USAMO. I wanted to acquaint myself with important problem solving techniques I would need for this test. Whiel this book provided many important insights and tricks, It was not helpful for my purposes. Basically, it gave plenty of extra tricks, but very, very little on where to apply these tricks and how a student would know to use a given technique.

In all, I'd rate this book a 5 for advanced problem solvers who know what they are doing but want a good set of problems and extra techniques. However, a newcomer to olympiads may wish to consider a different book to start educating themselves in problem-solving

Definitely a treasure!
Andreescu delivered again! This book teaches powerful math problem solving techniques through a series of graded problems. The insight from these two renounced problem solvers of elementary problems at the olympiad level is prevalent throughout the book, which is what makes this book a treasure. You'll learn wonderful techniques and come away with a satisfying feeling after you can solve some of the problems that seem impossible to you before. I hope these authors continue to put out such gems in the near future. Enjoy!

A good pedagogical aid for math competition
This is a great compilation of various subjects in math from which quiz problems often stem. The thought process for solving a particular type of quizzes is illustrated with actual sample problems, as it should be. I think it will be perfect for my son when he gets a little older, but this book may be too easy for adults. I purchased it after enjoying months of puzzle-solving pleasure on my long daily train rides with "Mathematical Olympiad Challenges" from the same authors, but this book poses so little challenge that there is virtually no risk of stumbling over any problem. The authors acknowledge the difference in difficulty levels in the promotional literature. Perhaps they will publish a collection of harder problems separately.