No other science is maybe so universal and exact as mathematics. That makes it a versatile and unequalled medium for thinking. The many applications of mathematics and informatics are described in Opgelost [Solved], the popular book from the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) that was presented on 16 November 2006. Opgelost has been written by science journalist Bennie Mols and is being published to mark CWI's sixtieth anniversary.
Why is a computer able to perform calculations far faster than a human but a human able to recognise faces much better? How reliable is the evidence for a murder? Is there a perfect electoral system? How does a search engine find what you are looking for? And is there a mathematics of love? These are just a few of the dozens of practical questions considered in Opgelost and that mathematics and informatics can answer.
Opgelost shows how mathematics and informatics are used in, for example, sport, games, politics, economics, industry, forensic techniques, music and the visual arts. The richly illustrated and easy to read book is suitable for everyone who is interested in mathematics and informatics and their applications.
Each chapter in Opgelost has a number of set sections, including do-it-yourself (for example, a puzzle or a murder mystery), an unsolved problem from mathematics and an interview with an expert. The experts describe their favourite mathematical formulas. These formulas vary from very simple to highly complex.
The CWI is an institute of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The publication of Opgelost was financed by the NWO/Spinoza Award of Prof. Lex Schrijver, mathematician at the CWI and the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He received the NWO/Spinoza Award last year, the highest scientific distinction in the Netherlands, for his work on combinatorial mathematics and algorithms. According to Schrijver, mathematics can best be compared to oxygen. If it is there, you do not notice it. Yet if it were not there, you notice that you cannot do without it.