Best Writing on Mathematics 2015

Princeton University Press has been publishing an annual compilation of the “The Best Writing on Mathematics” since 2010, with Mircea Pitici serving as the series editor. Every volume to date has included at least one selection from an MAA publication. The most recent book, for 2015, has four articles originally published by the MAA (out of 24 selections included in the book).

• “Plato. Poincaré, and the Enchanted Dodecahedron: Is the Universe Shaped Like the Poincaré Homology Sphere?” by Lawrence Brenton, Math Horizons, vol. 20 (February 2013), pp. 12-17. Interactive PDF.
• “On Unsettleable Arithmetical Problems” by John H. Conway, American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 120 (March 2013), pp. 192-198.
• “College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage” by David Gale and Lloyd S. Shapley, American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 120 (May 2013), pp. 386-391.
• “The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra for Artists” by Bahman Kalantari and Bruce Torrence, Math Horizons, vol. 20 (April 2013), pp. 26-29.

Several other articles have ties to the MAA.

The Beauty of Bounded Gaps: A Huge Discovery about Prime Numbers and What It Means for the Future of Mathematics” by Jordan Ellenberg, first published online in Slate, was reprinted in Math Horizons (September 2013, pp. 5-7) and went on to win the Trevor Evans Award.

MAA President-Elect Francis E. Su’s selected article, “The Lesson of Grace in Teaching,” is the text of the talk that he gave at the 2013 Joint Mathematics Meetings when he received the MAA Haimo teaching award and subsequently published on his blog “The Mathematical Yawp.”

Congratulations to all the authors and editors!–Ivars Peterson