In most mathematics textbooks, the most exciting part of mathematics - the process of invention and discovery - is completely hidden from the reader. The aim of ""Knots and Surfaces"" is to change all that. By means of a series of carefully selected tasks, this book leads readers to discover some real mathematics. There are no formulas to memorize; no procedures to follow. The book is a guide: its job is to start you in the right direction and to bring you back if you stray too far. Discovery is left to you. Suitable for a one-semester course at the beginning undergraduate level, there are no prerequisites for understanding the text. Any college student interested in discovering the beauty of mathematics will enjoy a course taught from this book. The book has also been used successfully with non science students who want to fulfill a science requirement. Also available from the AMS by David W. Farmer is ""Groups and Symmetry: A Guide to Discovering Mathematics"".

Random matrix theory is an area of mathematics first developed by physicists interested in the energy levels of atomic nuclei, but it can also be used to describe some exotic phenomena in the number theory of elliptic curves. The purpose of this book is to illustrate this interplay of number theory and random matrices. It begins with an introduction to elliptic curves and the fundamentals of modelling by a family of random matrices, and moves on to highlight the latest research. There are expositions of current research on ranks of elliptic curves, statistical properties of families of elliptic curves and their associated L-functions and the emerging uses of random matrix theory in this field. Most of the material here had its origin in a Clay Mathematics Institute workshop on this topic at the Newton Institute in Cambridge and together these contributions provide a unique in-depth treatment of the subject.

In most mathematics textbooks, the most exciting part of mathematics - the process of invention and discovery - is completely hidden from the reader. The aim of ""Groups and Symmetry"" is to change all that. By means of a series of carefully selected tasks, this book leads readers to discover some real mathematics. There are no formulas to memorize; no procedures to follow. The book is a guide: Its job is to start you in the right direction and to bring you back if you stray too far. Discovery is left to you. Suitable for a one-semester course at the beginning undergraduate level, there are no prerequisites for understanding the text. Any college student interested in discovering the beauty of mathematics will enjoy a course taught from this book. The book has also been used successfully with non science students who want to fulfill a science requirement. Also available from the AMS by David W. Farmer is ""Knots and Surfaces: A Guide to Discovering Mathematics"".