Invitation to Combinatorial Topology (Dover Books on Mathematics)

An elementary text that can be understood by anyone with a background in high school geometry, Invitation to Combinatorial Topology offers a stimulating initiation to important topological ideas. This translation from the original French does full justice to the text's coherent presentation as well as to its rich historical content. Subjects include the problems inherent to coloring maps, homeomorphism, applications of Descartes' theorem, and topological polygons. Considerations of the topological classification of closed surfaces cover elementary operations, use of normal forms of polyhedra, reduction to normal form, and application to the geometric theory of functions. 1967 edition. 108 figures. Bibliography. Index.