Table of Contents

1. Starting with Cauchy; 2. The AM-GM inequality; 3. Lagrange's identity and Minkowski's conjecture; 4. On geometry and sums of squares; 5. Consequences of order; 6. Convexity - the third pillar; 7. Integral intermezzo; 8. The ladder of power means; 9. Hölder's inequality; 10. Hilbert's inequality and compensating difficulties; 11. Hardy's inequality and the flop; 12. Symmetric sums; 13. Majorization and Schur convexity; 14. Cancellation and aggregation; Solutions to the exercises; Notes; References.

Promotional Information

This 2004 book presents a fascinating collection of problems related to the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and coaches readers through solutions.

About the Author

J. Michael Steele is C.F. Koo Professor of Statistics at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of more than 100 mathematical publications including the books, Probability Theory and Combinatorial Optimization and Stochastic Calculus and Financial Applications. He is also the founding editor of the Annals of Applied Probability.

Reviews

'This eminently readable book will be treasured not only by students and their teachers but also by all those who seek to make sense of the elusive macrocosm of twentieth-century mathematics.' Zentralblatt MATH '... pleaseant reading for everyone with a solid real analysis background at undergraduate level, even before reading Polya-Szego. In fact, even researchers working on topics close to those in this book can find much to add to their repertoire.' Tamas Erdelyi, Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University 'The book is special ... A large mathematics department with a functional graduate program could easily consider to offer a course based on this book.' Tamas Erdelyi, Journal of Approximation Theory