Item Successfully Added to Cart
An error was encountered while trying to add the item to the cart. Please try again.
OK
Please make all selections above before adding to cart
OK
Share this page via the icons above, or by copying the link below:
Copy To Clipboard
Successfully Copied!
Geometry and Billiards
 
Serge Tabachnikov Penn State, University Park, PA
Front Cover for Geometry and Billiards
Available Formats:
Softcover ISBN: 978-0-8218-3919-5
Product Code: STML/30
List Price: $44.00
Individual Price: $35.20
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-2141-0
Product Code: STML/30.E
List Price: $41.00
Individual Price: $32.80
Bundle Print and Electronic Formats and Save!
This product is available for purchase as a bundle. Purchasing as a bundle enables you to save on the electronic version.
List Price: $66.00
Front Cover for Geometry and Billiards
Click above image for expanded view
  • Front Cover for Geometry and Billiards
  • Back Cover for Geometry and Billiards
Geometry and Billiards
Serge Tabachnikov Penn State, University Park, PA
Available Formats:
Softcover ISBN:  978-0-8218-3919-5
Product Code:  STML/30
List Price: $44.00
Individual Price: $35.20
Electronic ISBN:  978-1-4704-2141-0
Product Code:  STML/30.E
List Price: $41.00
Individual Price: $32.80
Bundle Print and Electronic Formats and Save!
This product is available for purchase as a bundle. Purchasing as a bundle enables you to save on the electronic version.
List Price: $66.00
  • Book Details
     
     
    Student Mathematical Library
    Volume: 302005; 176 pp
    MSC: Primary 37; 51; Secondary 49; 70; 78;

    Mathematical billiards describe the motion of a mass point in a domain with elastic reflections off the boundary or, equivalently, the behavior of rays of light in a domain with ideally reflecting boundary. From the point of view of differential geometry, the billiard flow is the geodesic flow on a manifold with boundary. This book is devoted to billiards in their relation with differential geometry, classical mechanics, and geometrical optics.

    Topics covered include variational principles of billiard motion, symplectic geometry of rays of light and integral geometry, existence and nonexistence of caustics, optical properties of conics and quadrics and completely integrable billiards, periodic billiard trajectories, polygonal billiards, mechanisms of chaos in billiard dynamics, and the lesser-known subject of dual (or outer) billiards.

    The book is based on an advanced undergraduate topics course. Minimum prerequisites are the standard material covered in the first two years of college mathematics (the entire calculus sequence, linear algebra). However, readers should show some mathematical maturity and rely on their mathematical common sense.

    A unique feature of the book is the coverage of many diverse topics related to billiards, for example, evolutes and involutes of plane curves, the four-vertex theorem, a mathematical theory of rainbows, distribution of first digits in various sequences, Morse theory, the Poincaré recurrence theorem, Hilbert's fourth problem, Poncelet porism, and many others. There are approximately 100 illustrations.

    The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers interested in ergodic theory and geometry.

    This book is published in cooperation with Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters.
    Readership

    Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and research mathematicians interested in ergodic theory and geometry.

  • Table of Contents
     
     
    • Chapters
    • Chapter 1. Motivation: Mechanics and optics
    • Chapter 2. Billiard in the circle and the square
    • Chapter 3. Billiard ball map and integral geometry
    • Chapter 4. Billiards inside conics and quadrics
    • Chapter 5. Existence and non-existence of caustics
    • Chapter 6. Periodic trajectories
    • Chapter 7. Billiards in polygons
    • Chapter 8. Chaotic billiards
    • Chapter 9. Dual billiards
  • Reviews
     
     
    • (This book) is very well written, with nice illustrations. The author presents the results very clearly, with interesting digressions and he mentions applications of billiards to various fields.

      Zentralblatt MATH
  • Requests
     
     
    Review Copy – for reviewers who would like to review an AMS book
    Permission – for use of book, eBook, or Journal content
    Accessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
Volume: 302005; 176 pp
MSC: Primary 37; 51; Secondary 49; 70; 78;

Mathematical billiards describe the motion of a mass point in a domain with elastic reflections off the boundary or, equivalently, the behavior of rays of light in a domain with ideally reflecting boundary. From the point of view of differential geometry, the billiard flow is the geodesic flow on a manifold with boundary. This book is devoted to billiards in their relation with differential geometry, classical mechanics, and geometrical optics.

Topics covered include variational principles of billiard motion, symplectic geometry of rays of light and integral geometry, existence and nonexistence of caustics, optical properties of conics and quadrics and completely integrable billiards, periodic billiard trajectories, polygonal billiards, mechanisms of chaos in billiard dynamics, and the lesser-known subject of dual (or outer) billiards.

The book is based on an advanced undergraduate topics course. Minimum prerequisites are the standard material covered in the first two years of college mathematics (the entire calculus sequence, linear algebra). However, readers should show some mathematical maturity and rely on their mathematical common sense.

A unique feature of the book is the coverage of many diverse topics related to billiards, for example, evolutes and involutes of plane curves, the four-vertex theorem, a mathematical theory of rainbows, distribution of first digits in various sequences, Morse theory, the Poincaré recurrence theorem, Hilbert's fourth problem, Poncelet porism, and many others. There are approximately 100 illustrations.

The book is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers interested in ergodic theory and geometry.

This book is published in cooperation with Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters.
Readership

Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and research mathematicians interested in ergodic theory and geometry.

  • Chapters
  • Chapter 1. Motivation: Mechanics and optics
  • Chapter 2. Billiard in the circle and the square
  • Chapter 3. Billiard ball map and integral geometry
  • Chapter 4. Billiards inside conics and quadrics
  • Chapter 5. Existence and non-existence of caustics
  • Chapter 6. Periodic trajectories
  • Chapter 7. Billiards in polygons
  • Chapter 8. Chaotic billiards
  • Chapter 9. Dual billiards
  • (This book) is very well written, with nice illustrations. The author presents the results very clearly, with interesting digressions and he mentions applications of billiards to various fields.

    Zentralblatt MATH
Review Copy – for reviewers who would like to review an AMS book
Permission – for use of book, eBook, or Journal content
Accessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
Please select which format for which you are requesting permissions.