Can dynamic programming be used to determine the optimal cargo for a van? Can Bayesian analysis be used to help locate a lion? These questions and more are served up in this book as puzzles to whet the reader's appetite for practical problem solving... It's a story of two youngsters named Abai and Ayana accompanying their parents on a trip through Africa during which a visual impression of contemporary African life and customs provides the backdrops for a selection of stimulating and challenging puzzles introducing concepts in math, physics, probability and statistics, and operations research...