Topology is a relatively young and very important branch of mathematics. It studies properties of objects that are preserved by deformations, twistings, and stretchings, but not tearing. This book deals with the topology of curves and surfaces as well as with the fundamental concepts of homotopy and homology, and does this in a lively and well-motivated way. There is hardly an area of mathematics that does not make use of topological results and concepts. The importance of topological methods for different areas of physics is also beyond doubt. They are used in field theory and general...

VII Preface In many fields of mathematics, geometry has established itself as a fruitful method and common language for describing basic phenomena and problems as well as suggesting ways of solutions. Especially in pure mathematics this is ob- vious and well-known (examples are the much discussed interplay between lin- ear algebra and analytical geometry and several problems in multidimensional analysis). On the other hand, many specialists from applied mathematics seem to prefer more formal analytical and numerical methods and representations. Nevertheless, very often the internal...

In this short book, the authors discuss three types of problems from combinatorial geometry: Borsuk's partition problem, covering convex bodies by smaller homothetic bodies, and the illumination problem. They show how closely related these problems are to each other. The presentation is elementary, with no more than high-school mathematics and an interest in geometry required to follow the arguments. Most of the discussion is restricted to two- and three-dimensional Euclidean space, though sometimes more general results and problems are given. Thus even the mathematically unsophisticated...