This book joins several other books available for the preparation of
young scholars for a future that involves solving mathematical pr- lems.
This training not only increases their ?tness in competitions, but may
also help them in other endeavors they may engage in the future. The
book is a diversi?ed collection of problems from all areas of high
school mathematics, and is written in a lively and engaging way. The
introductory explanations and worked problems help guide the reader
without turning the additional problems into rote repe- tions of the
solved ones. The book should become an essential tool in the
armamentarium of faculty involved with training future competitors.
Branko Grunbaum ] Professor of Mathematics University of Washington
June 2008, Seattle, Washington Foreword This was the ?rst of Alexander
Soifer's books, I think, preceding How Does One Cut a Triangle? by a few
years. It is short on anecdote and reminiscence, but there is charm in
its youthful brusqueness and let- get-right-to-business muscularity.
And, mainly, there is a huge lode of problems, very good ones worked out
and very good ones left to the reader to work out.