Specifications
L
overs of mathematics have always
shared a secret largely unknown to the
rest of us: The subject they adore—for
those granted a look beneath its surface—is
beautiful.
Its shapes and proportions inspire painters
and musicians. Its mysteries can tantalize and
confound even its own deepest theoreticians.
And its demands for bold and insightful hab-
its of thinking develop skills as useful to us
in our everyday lives as they are to the most
abstract philosophers.
And now the highly effective strategies of
thinking from this remarkable mathemati-
cal world are available to you in The Joy
of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of
Classical Mathematical Ideas, in 24 clear
and entertaining lectures on DVD.
Best of all, the lectures come to you
from The Teaching Company, the renowned
educational enterprise that makes America’s
most honored college professors available
in brilliant recorded lectures you can enjoy
again and again.
No Special Knowledge Required!
The Joy of Thinking requires no special-
ized or advanced knowledge of math, and is
as appropriate for high school students as for
adults. Designed for those already fascinated
with math and eager to learn more, and those
merely curious about the subject, the lec-
tures feature two of the most entertaining
and honored teachers in mathematics today:
Professor Edward B. Burger of Williams
College and Professor Michael Starbird of
The University of Texas at Austin.
With the help of hundreds of props,
graphics, computer animations, and delight-
fully light-hearted problems (the reason this
course is available only on DVD), they exam-
ine the ways mathematicians make sense of
our world through numbers, geometry, and
probability. And they’ll leave you with a firm
grasp of math’s most fundamental ideas, les-
sons for living, and a new appreciation for the
mathematics—in art, nature, and everyday
life—that surround us.
About The Teaching Company
We review hundreds of top-rated profes-
sors from America’s best colleges and uni-
versities each year. From this extraordinary
group we choose only those rated highest by
panels of our customers. Fewer than 10% of
these world-class scholar-teachers are selected
to make The Great Courses.
We’ve been doing this since 1990, pro-
ducing more than 3,000 hours of material
in modern and ancient history, philosophy,
literature, fine arts, the sciences, and math-
ematics for intelligent, engaged, adult life-
long learners. If a course is ever less than
completely satisfying, you may exchange it
for another, or we will refund your money
promptly.
Lecture Titles
1. Great Ideas that Bring Our World into
Focus
2. How Many? Counting Surprises
3. Fermat’s Last Theorem
and the Allure of Number
4. Pining for Nature’s Numbers
5. Sizing up the Fibonacci Numbers
6. The Sexiest Rectangle
7. The Hidden Beauty of the
Golden Rectangle
8. The Pythagorean Theorem
and Geometry of Ellipses
9. Not-so-Platonic Relationships
in Platonic Solids
10. Hunting for a Sixth Platonic Solid
11. Is There a Fourth Dimension?
Can We See It?
12. The Invisible Art of the Fourth
Dimension
13. A Twisted Idea—The Möbius Band
14. A One-Sided, Sealed Surface—
The Klein Bottle
15. Ordinary Origami—
Creating Beautiful Patterns
16. Unfolding Paper to Reveal a
Fiery Fractal
17. Fractals—Infinitely Complex Creations
18. Fractal Frauds of Nature
19. Chance Surprises—
Measuring Uncertainty
20. Door Number Two or Door
Number Three?
21. Great Expectations—
Weighing the Uncertain Future
22. Random Thoughts—
Randomness in Our World
23. How Surprising are
Surprising Coincidences?
24. Life Lessons Learned from
Mathematical Thinking
The
Great Courses
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Discover a Mathematical World
of Startling Beauty and Insight
when you experience The Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical
Mathematical Ideas—in 24 fascinating and provocative lectures on DVD
© Corel Stock Photo Library.
A fractal
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