STEIN, Sherman K. 1926-

PERSONAL:

Born August 11, 1926, in Minneapolis, MN; son of Harry (a merchant and bookbinder) and Fanny (a homemaker) Stein; married Hannah Dunitz, June 11, 1950; children: Joshua, Rebecca, Susanna. Education: California Institute of Technology, B.S., 1946; Columbia University, Ph.D., 1952. Hobbies and other interests: History, thinking, painting.

ADDRESSES:

Office—c/o Department of Mathematics, University of California—Davis, 1 Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616-8633. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of California, Davis, professor of mathematics, 1953-93, became professor emeritus; writer, 1993—.

MEMBER:

Mathematical Association of America, American Mathematical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lester H. Ford Award for Exposition, Mathematical Association of America; LL. D., Marietta College.

WRITINGS:

Mathematics: The Manmade Universe; An Introduction to the Spirit of Mathematics, W. H. Freeman (San Francisco, CA), 1963, 3rd edition, Dover Publications (Mineola, NY), 1998, reprinted with corrections and new appendix, 1999.

Calculus in the First Three Dimensions, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1967.

Calculus for the Natural and Social Sciences, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1968.

Calculus and Analytic Geometry, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1968, 5th edition (with Anthony Barcellos), 1992.

(With Calvin D. Crabill) Elementary Algebra: A Guided Inquiry, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1972.

(With G. D. Chakerian and Calvin D. Crabill) Geometry: A Guided Inquiry (instructor's edition), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1972.

(With Anthony Barcellos) An Introduction to Differential Equations to Accompany Stein/Barcellos, Calculus and Analytic Geometry, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Sándor Szabó) Algebra and Tiling: Homomorphisms in the Service of Geometry, Mathematical Association of America (Washington, DC), 1994.

Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life, John Wiley (New York, NY), 1996.

Archimedes: What Did He Do besides Cry Eureka?, Mathematical Association of America (Washington, DC), 1999.

How the Other Half Thinks: Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Research on the dissections of polygons.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sherman K. Stein once told CA: "Most of my books have been textbooks, designed to spread the gospel of mathematics. I write with pen and ink, dipping the pen frequently, just like with quill and ink. That keeps me from thinking I have a finished product, and it also lets me see the overall view. After global editing, I put it on the word processor for polishing.

"At last I have written a real book, not a text. Strength in Numbers is designed to make everyone appreciate, if not love, mathematics. In this, I was influenced by the writing of Isaac Asimov, who is careful to assume the reader does not already know what the author is trying to explain."

Stein later added: " How the Other Half Thinks: Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning is also designed to make everyone appreciate, if not love, mathematics. It uses nothing beyond simple arithmetic—no algebra—yet conveys the mathematical way of thinking."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September, 1997, review of Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life, p. 488.

Choice, April, 1997, review of Strength in Numbers, p. 1376.

Mathematics Teacher, April, 1997, review of Strength in Numbers, p. 334.

New Scientist, February 8, 1997, review of Strength in Numbers, p. 44.

Science Books and Films, January, 1997, review of Strength in Numbers, p. 12.

SciTech Book News, December, 1996, review of Strength in Numbers, p. 14; September, 1999, review of Archimedes: What Did He Do besides Cry Eureka?, p. 12.

ONLINE

Mathematical Association of America Online,http://www.maa.org/ (November 24, 2002), Ed Sandifer, review of Archimedes: What Did He Do besides Cry Eureka?; (November 24, 2002), Stacy Langton, review of How the Other Half Thinks: Adventures in Mathematical Reasoning.

Plus Math Web Site,http://plus.maths.org/ (November 24, 2002), Helen Joyce, review of Archimedes.