Art and Craft of Mathematical Problem Solving

OK let's face it, we are not all mathletes. Apparently this is a special group of people who like math/logic games and have developed their own subculture. I'm not an anthropologist, so can't go any farther down that path. However, I do like math, mainly the applied calculus-based variety, and I see value in some of the approaches that Prof Zeitz presents. And I had already used a few of them such as symmetry or parity in my own work. This course expanded my thinking about problem solving, and from my point of view it was worthwhile. But I will never be a mathlete.

It's thought provoking, presenting a lot of techniques for solving a variety of problems, some of which only a mathematician could love. There were some interesting problems presented, along with some of the book solutions. The presenter harped on "getting your hands dirty," so as a defrocked computer geek, I did, often writing little PERL programs to find solutions in my own perverted way. My main criticism of the course is that problem presentations and solutions were often terse and ambiguous, requiring assumptions that the presenter had in his mind but did not articulate, so that the student had to guess what the problem really was. I could give examples but not here.

Excellent teacher. Amusing, detailed, committed, a very informative and helpful presentation

I'm an old mathematician of the applied analysis sort, partial differential equations, statistics and such. I never cared much for number theory, and prime numbers have interested me only in so far as they are relevant to encryption. But Zeitz has made it fun. I have seen a new wholeness, and I have liked the view.

Excellent instructor who presents ways to solve challenging puzzles