Synopses & Reviews
This book is a tribute to Paul Erdos, the wandering mathematician once described as the prince of problem solvers and the absolute monarch of problem posers. It examineswithin the context of his unique personality and lifestylethe legacy of open problems he left to the world after his death in 1996. Unwilling to succumb to the temptations of money and position, Erdos never had a home and never held a job. His home was a bag or two containing all his belongings and a record of the collective activities of the mathematical community. His job was one at which he excelled: identifying a fundamental roadblock in some particular line of approach and capturing it in a well-chosen, often innocent-looking problem, whose solution would likewise provide insight into the underlying theory. By cataloguing the unsolved problems of Erdos in a comprehensive and well-documented volume, the authors hope to continue the work of an unusual and special man who fundamentally influenced the field of mathematics.