ABSTRACT
Well, we have come to the end of our journey. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed matching wits with Ravi. Doubtless, some of the stories may have seemed far-fetched, or even a bit contrived. However, my hope is that they made the mathematics behind them seem both enjoyable and practical. One of the most frequent phrases that I hear from friends exasperated by an evening’s math homework is, “When am I ever going to use this stuff?” While they ask what they believe to be a rhetorical question, I hope that this book provides a very small glimpse of an answer. Once again, though, as I said in the preface, I do not like mathematics for its utility, but rather for its beauty.
