How to solve it
Subtitle: a new aspect of mathematical method
By: [by] G. Polya.
Edition: 2d ed.
Series: Princeton paperbacks : -- no. 246
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Number of pages: 253
Subjects: Mathematics  -- Study and teaching.; Mathematics  -- Problems, exercises, etc.
Description: Table of Contents
	From the preface to the first printing	
	From the preface to the seventh printing	
	Preface to the second edition	
	"How to solve it" list	
	Foreword	
	Introduction	
Pt. 1	In the classroom	
1	Helping the student	1
2	Questions, recommendations, mental operations	1
3	Generality	2
4	Common sense	3
5	Teacher and student, imitation and practice	3
6	Four phases	5
7	Understanding the problem	6
8	Example	7
9	Devising a plan	8
10	Example	10
11	Carrying out the plan	12
12	Example	13
13	Looking back	14
14	Example	16
15	Various approaches	19
16	The teacher's method of questioning	20
17	Good questions and bad questions	22
18	A problem of construction	23
19	A problem to prove	25
20	A rate problem	29
Pt. II	How to solve it	
	A dialogue	33
Pt. III	Short dictionary of heuristic	
	Analogy	37
	Auxiliary elements	46
	Auxiliary problem	50
	Bolzano	57
	Bright idea	58
	Can you check the result?	59
	Can you derive the result differently?	61
	Can you use the result?	64
	Carrying out	68
	Condition	72
	Contradictory	73
	Corollary	73
	Could you derive something useful from the data?	73
	Could you restate the problems?	75
	Decomposing and recombining	75
	Definition	85
	Descartes	92
	Determination, hope, success	93
	Diagnosis	94
	Did you use all the data?	95
	Do you know a related problem?	98
	Draw a figure	99
	Examine your guess	99
	Figures	103
	Generalization	108
	Have you seen it before?	110
	Here is a problem related to yours and solved before	110
	Heuristic	112
	Heuristic reasoning	113
	If you cannot solve the proposed problem	114
	Induction and mathematical induction	114
	Inventor's paradox	121
	Is it possible to satisfy the condition?	122
	Leibnitz	123
	Lemma	123
	Look at the unknown	123
	Modern heuristic	129
	Notation	134
	Pappus	141
	Pedantry and mastery	148
	Practical problems	149
	Problems to find, problems to prove	154
	Progress and achievement	157
	Puzzles	160
	Reductio ad absurdum and indirect proof	162
	Redundant	171
	Routine problem	171
	Rules of discovery	172
	Rules of style	172
	Rules of teaching	173
	Separate the various parts of the condition	173
	Setting up equations	174
	Signs of progress	178
	Specialization	190
	Subconscious work	197
	Symmetry	199
	Terms, old and new	200
	Test by dimension	202
	The future mathematician	205
	The intelligent problem-solver	206
	The intelligent reader	207
	The traditional mathematics professor	208
	Variation of the problem	209
	What is the unknown?	214
	Why proofs?	215
	Wisdom of proverbs	221
	Working backwards	225
Pt. IV	Problems, hints, solutions	
	Problems	234
	Hints	238
	Solutions	242
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.

Second printing, 1973.