topics. However, only a modest preliminary knowledge is needed. In the first chapter, where we introduce an important topological concept, the so-called topological degree for continuous maps from subsets ofRn into Rn, you need not know anything about functional analysis. Starting with Chapter 2, where infinite dimensions first appear, one should be familiar with the essential step of consider ing a sequence or a function of some sort as a point in the corresponding vector space of all such sequences or functions, whenever this abstraction is worthwhile. One should also work out the things...