The mathematical coloring book : mathematics of coloring and the colorful life of its creators

This is a unique type of book; at least, I have never encountered a book of this kind.

The best description of it I can give is that it is a mystery novel, developing on three levels, and imbued with both educational and philosophical/moral issues.

If this summary description does not help understanding the particular character and allure of the book, possibly a more detailed explanation will be found useful.

One of the primary goals of the author is to interest readers—in particular, young mathematiciansorpossiblypre-mathematicians—inthefascinatingworldofelegant and easily understandable problems, for which no particular mathematical kno- edge is necessary, but which are very far from being easily solved.

In fact, the prototype of such problems is the following: If each point of the plane is to be given a color, how many colors do we need if every two points at unit distance are to receive distinct colors?

More than half a century ago it was established that the least number of colorsneeded for such a coloring is either 4, or 5, or 6 or 7.

Well, which is it? Despite efforts by a legion of very bright people—many of whom developed whole branches of mathematics and solved problems that seemed much harder—not a single advance towards the answer has been made.

This mystery, and scores of other similarly simple questions, form one level of mysteries explored.

In doing this, the author presents a whole lot of attractive results in an engaging way, and with increasing level of depth.