Guesstimation

Guesstimation is a book that unlocks the power of approximation--it's popular mathematics rounded to the nearest power of ten! The ability to estimate is an important skill in daily life. More and more leading businesses today use estimation questions in interviews to test applicants' abilities to think on their feet. Guesstimation enables anyone with basic math and science skills to estimate virtually anything--quickly--using plausible assumptions and elementary arithmetic. Lawrence Weinstein and John Adam present an eclectic array of estimation problems that range from devilishly simple to quite sophisticated and from serious real-world concerns to downright silly ones. How long would it take a running faucet to fill the inverted dome of the Capitol? What is the total length of all the pickles consumed in the US in one year? What are the relative merits of internal-combustion and electric cars, of coal and nuclear energy? The problems are marvelously diverse, yet the skills to solve them are the same. The authors show how easy it is to derive useful ballpark estimates by breaking complex problems into simpler, more manageable ones--and how there can be many paths to the right answer. The book is written in a question-and-answer format with lots of hints along the way. It includes a handy appendix summarizing the few formulas and basic science concepts needed, and its small size and French-fold design make it conveniently portable. Illustrated with humorous pen-and-ink sketches, Guesstimation will delight popular-math enthusiasts and is ideal for the classroom.

Simple and effective techniques for quickly estimating virtually anything Guesstimation 2.0 reveals the simple and effective techniques needed to estimate virtually anything—quickly—and illustrates them using an eclectic array of problems. A stimulating follow-up to Guesstimation, this is the must-have book for anyone preparing for a job interview in technology or finance, where more and more leading businesses test applicants using estimation questions just like these. The ability to guesstimate on your feet is an essential skill to have in today's world, whether you're trying to distinguish between a billion-dollar subsidy and a trillion-dollar stimulus, a megawatt wind turbine and a gigawatt nuclear plant, or parts-per-million and parts-per-billion contaminants. Lawrence Weinstein begins with a concise tutorial on how to solve these kinds of order of magnitude problems, and then invites readers to have a go themselves. The book features dozens of problems along with helpful hints and easy-to-understand solutions. It also includes appendixes containing useful formulas and more. Guesstimation 2.0 shows how to estimate everything from how closely you can orbit a neutron star without being pulled apart by gravity, to the fuel used to transport your food from the farm to the store, to the total length of all toilet paper used in the United States. It also enables readers to answer, once and for all, the most asked environmental question of our day: paper or plastic?

This volume contains the proceedings of the 5th International Joint Conference on Automated Reasoning (IJCAR 2010). IJCAR 2010 was held during July 16-19 as part of the 2010 Federated Logic Conference, hosted by the School of Informatics at the University ofEdinburgh,Scotland. Support by the conference sponsors – EPSRC, NSF, Microsoft Research, Association for Symbolic Logic, CADE Inc. , Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel – is gratefully acknowledged. IJCARisthepremierinternationaljointconferenceonalltopicsinautomated reasoning, including foundations, implementations, and applications. Previous IJCAR conferences were held at Siena (Italy) in 2001, Cork (Ireland) in 2004, Seattle (USA) in 2006, and Sydney (Australia) in 2008. IJCAR comprises s- eral leading conferences and workshops. In 2010, IJCAR was the fusion of the following events: –CADE: International Conference on Automated Deduction –FroCoS: International Symposium on Frontiers of Combining Systems –FTP: International Workshop on First-Order Theorem Proving – TABLEAUX: InternationalConferenceonAutomatedReasoningwith- alytic Tableaux and Related Methods There were 89 submissions (63 regular papers and 26 system descriptions) of which 40 were accepted (28 regular papers and 12 system descriptions). Each submission was assigned to at least three Program Committee members, who carefully reviewed the papers, with the help of 92 external referees. Afterwards, the submissions were discussed by the ProgramCommittee during two weeks by means of Andrei Voronkov’s EasyChair system. We want to thank Andrei very much for providing his system, which was very helpful for the management of the submissions and reviews and for the discussion of the Program Committee.

This book is a comparative review of corruption during the transition from Communism. Based on two international conferences at Princeton University and the Central European University, it acts as a guide to the problem of corruption in transition countries. This book represents a realistic view.

An antidote to mathematical rigor mortis, teaching how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In problem solving, as in street fighting, rules are for fools: do whatever works—don't just stand there! Yet we often fear an unjustified leap even though it may land us on a correct result. Traditional mathematics teaching is largely about solving exactly stated problems exactly, yet life often hands us partly defined problems needing only moderately accurate solutions. This engaging book is an antidote to the rigor mortis brought on by too much mathematical rigor, teaching us how to guess answers without needing a proof or an exact calculation. In Street-Fighting Mathematics, Sanjoy Mahajan builds, sharpens, and demonstrates tools for educated guessing and down-and-dirty, opportunistic problem solving across diverse fields of knowledge—from mathematics to management. Mahajan describes six tools: dimensional analysis, easy cases, lumping, picture proofs, successive approximation, and reasoning by analogy. Illustrating each tool with numerous examples, he carefully separates the tool—the general principle—from the particular application so that the reader can most easily grasp the tool itself to use on problems of particular interest. Street-Fighting Mathematics grew out of a short course taught by the author at MIT for students ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students ready for careers in physics, mathematics, management, electrical engineering, computer science, and biology. They benefited from an approach that avoided rigor and taught them how to use mathematics to solve real problems. Street-Fighting Mathematics will appear in print and online under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share Alike license.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been much in the news recently, with some commentators expressing concern that AI might eventually replace humans. But many developments in AI are designed to enhance and supplement the performance of humans rather than replace them, and a novel field of study, with new approaches and solutions to the development of AI, has arisen to focus on this aspect of the technology. This book presents the proceedings of HHAI2023, the 2nd International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence, held from 26-30 June 2023, in Munich, Germany. The HHAI international conference series is focused on the study of artificially intelligent systems that cooperate synergistically, proactively, responsibly and purposefully with humans, amplifying rather than replacing human intelligence, and invites contributions from various fields, including AI, human-computer interaction, the cognitive and social sciences, computer science, philosophy, among others. A total of 78 submissions were received for the main conference track, and most papers were reviewed by at least three reviewers. The overall final acceptance rate was 43%, with 14 contributions accepted as full papers, 14 as working papers, and 6 as extended abstracts. The papers presented here cover topics including interactive hybrid agents; hybrid intelligence for decision support; hybrid intelligence for health; and values such as fairness and trust in hybrid intelligence. We further accepted 17 posters and 4 demos as well as 8 students to the first HHAI doctoral consortium this year. The authors of 4 working papers and 2 doctoral consortium submissions opted for not publishing their submissions to allow a later full submission, resulting in a total of 57 papers included in this proceedings Addressing all aspects of AI systems that assist humans and emphasizing the need for adaptive, collaborative, responsible, interactive, and human-centered artificial intelligence systems which can leverage human strengths and compensate for human weaknesses while considering social, ethical, and legal considerations, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field.

Fun math puzzles based on the Twelve Labors of Hercules How might Hercules, the most famous of the Greek heroes, have used mathematics to complete his astonishing Twelve Labors? From conquering the Nemean Lion and cleaning out the Augean Stables, to capturing the Erymanthean Boar and entering the Underworld to defeat the three-headed dog Cerberus, Hercules and his legend are the inspiration for this book of fun and original math puzzles. While Hercules relied on superhuman strength to accomplish the Twelve Labors, Mythematics shows how math could have helped during his quest. How does Hercules defeat the Lernean Hydra and stop its heads from multiplying? Can Hercules clean the Augean Stables in a day? What is the probability that the Cretan Bull will attack the citizens of Marathon? How does Hercules deal with the terrifying Kraken? Michael Huber's inventive math problems are accompanied by short descriptions of the Twelve Labors, taken from the writings of Apollodorus, who chronicled the life of Hercules two thousand years ago. Tasks are approached from a mathematical modeling viewpoint, requiring varying levels of knowledge, from basic logic and geometry to differential and integral calculus. Mythematics provides helpful hints and complete solutions, and the appendixes include a brief history of the Hercules tale, a review of mathematics and equations, and a guide to the various disciplines of math used throughout the book. An engaging combination of ancient mythology and modern mathematics, Mythematics will enlighten and delight mathematics and classics enthusiasts alike.

Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the chocolate, crisps and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up. In his extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch an incredible ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably loveable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections.