----- Original Message ---- From: James Propp <jpropp@cs.uml.edu> To: math-fun@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 9:05:32 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] F^-1(G(F(x)))

Is there a common name for the idiom

F^-1( G( F( x ) ) ) ? Z. A. Melzak dubbed constructs like this "bypasses". When I was in high school, I received a copy of Melzak's book "Companion to Concrete Mathematics", and as I recall Melzak had an appendix in the book that talked about lots of places in math where this maneuver accomplishes great things. I remember thinking "Gosh, someone could write a whole book about this!" And then Melzak went ahead and did just that, in a book called "Bypasses: A Simple Approach to Complexity". Has anyone on this list read it? (I always meant to; just never got around to it...) Jim _______________________________________________ They're wonderful books. And you have no excuse for not reading them yourself, since they have been reprinted by Dover, "two volumes bound as one". http://store.doverpublications.com/0486457818.html Gene ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs