Excursions in Modern Mathematics

Mathematics can illuminate an election, help compare competing choices, reveal patterns in growth, or bring unexpected order to the shapes around us. In Excursions in Modern Mathematics, Peter Tannenbaum’s ninth edition introduces these broader applications for readers studying liberal arts mathematics.

Rather than treating mathematics as a collection of formulas to memorize, the book connects mathematical ideas with questions about society, decision-making, data, and the forms of the world around us. Its range makes it a distinctive introduction to the ways mathematical thinking can be both useful and beautiful.

Mathematics beyond the usual formulas

The book organizes its subject matter into five areas: social choice, management science, growth, shape and form, and statistics. Together, these themes take readers from public questions—such as how elections choose leaders—to patterns and structures found in nature and human-made environments.

Explore choices, patterns, and connections

Social choice brings mathematical reasoning to elections and the ways individual and group preferences are measured. The book also considers how people and places connect, making the mathematics of networks relevant to a world shaped by social relationships. Its attention to growth and statistics extends that exploration to patterns and the interpretation of data.

See the beauty in shape and form

Mathematics is not only abstract calculation. By including shapes in both natural and designed settings, this text invites readers to notice visual structure and to appreciate a side of mathematics that can be missed when the subject is reduced to algebra alone.

For liberal arts mathematics readers

With its mix of social, practical, statistical, and visual themes, this edition is suited to readers seeking a broad introduction to mathematics and its applications. It offers students a way to encounter the subject through questions that connect with civic life, contemporary society, and the world they can see around them.