Art of Problem Solving

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Please improve this article if you can. (October 2007)

The Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) is a mathematics education company founded by Richard Rusczyk in 2003. It writes and sells textbooks and online courses for middle school and high school students. The Art of Problem Solving and the Art of Problem Solving Foundation are not the same thing; the latter is a non-profit foundation created by Rusczyk to fund the Art of Problem Solving as well as other mathematical projects, and the former is a company.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

A set of two books by the same name, The Art of Problem Solving, was coauthored by Richard Rusczyk and Sandor Lehoczky. The books, which were about 750 pages together, were for students who were interested in mathematics or competing in mathematics competitions.

Volume 1: The Basics was appropriate for students just beginning in math contests, while Volume 2: and Beyond was for more advanced students. Both books featured hundreds of problems from actual mathematics competitions, such as the American Mathematics Competitions, the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad, the Mandelbrot Competition, Mu Alpha Theta, Mathematics and Informatics Quarterly magazine, and the International Mathematical Olympiad.

Although the books discussed many topics that occurred frequently in mathematics contests, they were not just a collection of tricks. Instead, the books taught students to learn and understand methods, which allowed them to solve a wide variety of problems beyond those presented in the books.

Rusczyk founded the Art of Problem Solving website after the success of the two books. The site now receives millions of visits per year by students all over the world.[citation needed] In particular, numerous medalists at the International Mathematical Olympiad, winners of the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), hundreds of USAMO and hundreds of MathCounts participants (including many top mathletes), and winners of scholarship competitions such as the Siemens Westinghouse Competition and Davidson Scholars program regularly use AoPS as an enrichment educational resource.[2] AoPS even runs the Worldwide Online Olympiad Training (WOOT) program, an online program that trains USAMO participants and members of the U.S. IMO team.

[edit] MathLinks

Valentin Vornicu (see below) founded MathLinks in 2002 and merged it with AoPS in 2004. A wiki powered by MediaWiki was added to the website in 2006.[3]

[edit] Staff

The current staff of AoPS includes the following:

Matthew Crawford, who also used to work for the Art of Problem Solving Foundation, worked at AoPS until recently.

[edit] Projects

[edit] USAMTS

Main article: USA Mathematical Talent Search

AoPS administrates the USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS), one of the USA's foremost selection processes to the AIME and eventually the International Mathematics Olympiad.[6]

[edit] Books

AoPS publishes a series of mathematical creative problem solving textbooks, in a range of difficulties.[7] These are:

  • Classic Problem Solving Series
    • Art of Problem Solving Volume 1: the Basics
    • Art of Problem Solving Volume 2: and Beyond
  • Introduction Series (written primarily for advanced middle school students)
  • Intermediate Series (written primarily for advanced high school students)
    • Intermediate Counting and Probability
    • Intermediate Algebra

AoPS hosts an online bookstore, selling books from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and from various math competitions such as MathCounts and the AMC.[8] At the bookstore, AoPS also has books from other publishers, such as the Art and Craft of Problem Solving.

[edit] Internet courses

Art of Problem Solving administers numerous online courses at its website, and are designed for advanced mathematics topics for students from grades 7 to 12. Some courses prepare students for competitions like the AIME and Mathcounts. Also, it hosts a large mathematics forum for middle and high schools and college levels.[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ About Us.
  2. ^ AoPS Community Leadership.
  3. ^ Art of Problem Solving Forum.
  4. ^ About Us.
  5. ^ www.edu.ro :: Valentin Vornicu - asistent personal al ministrului si educatiei si cercetarii pentru relatia cu olimpicii romani.
  6. ^ USA Mathematical Talent Search.
  7. ^ Cogito - Art of Problem Solving.
  8. ^ AoPS Bookstore.
  9. ^ Art of Problem Solving.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links