Paul R. Halmos

Publisher Description (unedited publisher data) Here is an introduction to modern logic that differs from others by treating logic from an algebraic perspective. What this means is that notions and results from logic become much easier to understand when seen from a familiar standpoint of algebra. The presentation, written in the engaging and provocative style that is the hallmark of Paul Halmos, from whose course the book is taken, is aimed at a broad audience, students, teachers and amateurs in mathematics, philosophy, computer science, linguistics and engineering; they all have to get to grips with logic at some stage. All that is needed to understand the book is some basic acquaintance with algebra. Library of Congress subject headings for this publication: Logic, Symbolic and mathematical.

A collection of math problems for people of varying skills from high school through professional level, organized into fourteen categories such as matrices, space, probability, and puzzles, and including hints and solutions.

The purpose of this book is to use problems and their solutions to communicate to the reader many of the central techniques and ideas of Hilbert spaces. The first part consists of problems, frequently preceded by definitions and motivation, and sometimes followed by corollaries and historical remarks. Most of the problems are statements to be proved, but some are questions, and some are challenges. The second part, a very short one, consists of hints. The third part consists of solutions: proofs, answers, or constructions, depending on the nature of the problem. The solution may also introduce standard nomenclature, discuss the history of the subject, and mention pertinent references.--