Chases and Escapes: The Mathematics of Pursuit and Evasion
"In the 18th century, mathematicians began to tease apart how best to track down and intercept prey, inspired by pirate ships bearing down on merchant vessels. The mathematics is by no means trivial, and quickly becomes fiendish if the merchant ship takes evasive action. This is just one of the colorful problems in Paul Nahin's fascinating history of the mathematics of pursuit, in which he guides us masterfully through the maths itself--think lions and Christians, submarines and torpedoes, and the curvaceous flight of fighter aircraft."--New Scientist"This book contains a well-written, well-organized collection of solutions to twenty-one challenging calculus and differential equation problems that concern pursuit and evasion as well as the historical background of each problem type."--Mathematics Teacher"I am sure that this book will appeal to everyone who is interested in mathematics and game theory. Excellent work. Cheers."--Prabhat Kumar Mahanti,Zentralblatt Math"This is a highly readable book that offers several colorful applications of differential equations and good examples of non-trivial integrals for calculus students. It would be a good source of examples for the classroom and or a starting point for an independent project."--Bill Satzer,MAA Review