Proofs from the Book

This revised and enlarged fifth edition features four new chapters, which contain highly original and delightful proofs for classics such as the spectral theorem from linear algebra, some more recent jewels like the non-existence of the Borromean rings and other surprises.

From the Reviews

"... Inside PFTB (Proofs from The Book) is indeed a glimpse of mathematical heaven, where clever insights and beautiful ideas combine in astonishing and glorious ways. There is vast wealth within its pages, one gem after another. ... Aigner and Ziegler... write: "... all we offer is the examples that we have selected, hoping that our readers will share our enthusiasm about brilliant ideas, clever insights and wonderful observations." I do. ... "

Notices of the AMS, August 1999

"... This book is a pleasure to hold and to look at: ample margins, nice photos, instructive pictures and beautiful drawings ... It is a pleasure to read as well: the style is clear and entertaining, the level is close to elementary, the necessary background is given separately and the proofs are brilliant. ..."

LMS Newsletter, January 1999

"Martin Aigner and Günter Ziegler succeeded admirably in putting together a broad collection of theorems and their proofs that would undoubtedly be in the Book of Erdös. The theorems are so fundamental, their proofs so elegant and the remaining open questio

SIGACT News, December 2011.

Martin Aigner received his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna and has been professor of mathematics at the Freie Universitat Berlin since 1974. He has published in various fields of combinatorics and graph theory and is the author of several monographs on discrete mathematics, among them the Springer books Combinatorial Theory and A Course on Enumeration. Martin Aigner is a recipient of the 1996 Lester R. Ford Award for mathematical exposition of the Mathematical Association of America MAA.

Gunter M. Ziegler received his Ph.D. from M.I.T. and has been professor of mathematics in Berlin – first at TU Berlin, now at Freie Universitat – since 1995. He has published in discrete mathematics, geometry, topology, and optimization, including the Lectures on Polytopes with Springer, as well as ?Do I Count? Stories from Mathematics“. Gunter M. Ziegler is a recipient of the 2006 Chauvenet Prize of the MAA for his expository writing and the 2008 Communicator award of the German Science Foundation.

Martin Aigner and Gunter M. Ziegler have started their work on Proofs from THE BOOK in 1995 together with Paul Erdos. The first edition of this book appeared in 1998 – it has since been translated into 13 languages: Brazilian, Chinese, German, Farsi, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.