only the russian's can give us critical thinking
was reviewing a book and was checking it's amazon review to find this review by a anonymous user. and by far it's the best thing I stumbled upon.
Mathematical Circles : Fomin Et Al: Amazon.in: Books
Arguably the best book on Problem Solving (if not the best organised). A must-have for every middle to high school child, as also for any adult who wishes to have a working brain for a change. For a more organised book, Dorichenko's "A Moscow Math Circle" is recommended. It follows in the same tradition, but with a more organised way of presenting problems so that each builds on the previous.
Along with this book, I will recommend, for anyone interested in fine-tuning their Problem Solving skills, the following books:
- Dorichenko's "A Moscow Math Circle"
- Kordemsky's "The Moscow Puzzles"
- Averbach and Chein's "Problem Solving through Recreational Mathematics"
- Roland Backhouse's "Algorithmic Problem Solving"
- Yuri Chernyak's "The Chicken from Minsk and 99 other problems" (difficult to find in print)
Get these, work them out yourself, and you will be unbeatable in Problem Solving, which extends to an absolute edge in any enterprise you undertake in life.
P.S: At these prices, it's ridiculous not to buy it. I can safely say that I would have purchased it even if it had been 10 times as expensive (such as Dorichenko's book, for instance, which I still did buy).
and this review let me go in the rabbit hole and my my. these are phenomenal books to actually build good mathematical thinking. like physics on a napkin sense!
everyone should solve and do them. and having patience and try to solve should be fun. they do have back book answers for most. which is great!