Ants, Bikes, and Clocks: Problem Solving for Undergraduates Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a wonderful collection of applied math problems from diverse sources used to illustrate the mathematical problem solving process. The beauty of this book is the liberal use of math problems of the applied variety such as the following:

(Problem 6.26) Ants on a stick: One hundred ants are placed on a stick that is one meter in length. Each ant crawls to either the left or the right with a constant speed of 1 meter per minute. When 2 ants meet, they bounce off each other and reverse direction. When an ant reaches an end of the stick, it falls off. What is the maximum amount of time you would need to wait for all of the ants to fall off the stick?

(Problem 6.15) Bike race: Two cyclists racing on parallel roads maintain constant speeds of 30mph and 25 mph. The faster cyclist crosses the finish line one hour before the slower cyclist. How long was the race (in miles)?

(Problem 1.15) Chiming clock: If a clock takes 5 seconds to strike 5:00 (chiming 5 times), how long does it take to strike 10:00 (chiming 10 times)? Assume that the chimes occur instantaneously.

The book, like other SIAM series books, is a bit pricey at 168 pages. But if you like challenging applied math problems, it's worth it.

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Product Description:
Ants, Bikes, and Clocks is an excellent text for an undergraduate problem-solving course or as a resource for mathematics educators, providing hundreds of mathematical problems that can be used in any course.Mathematically the book relies on two semesters of calculus, although much of the book requires only precalculus skills.