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7th out of 133 books
—
154 voters
What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods
For more than two thousand years a familiarity with mathematics has been regarded as an indispensable part of the intellectual equipment of every cultured person. Today, unfortunately, the traditional place of mathematics in education is in grave danger. The teaching and learning of mathematics has degenerated into the realm of rote memorization, the outcome of which leads...more
Paperback, 592 pages
Published
July 18th 1996
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published January 1st 1967)
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This is the ideal book to read during the last years at school, or early in an undergraduate degree. School maths is often about understanding mathematical concepts intuitively via rote learning, repetition and visualization. This book teaches you how mathematical knowledge is arrived at by looking carefully at a few simple ideas and building upon them.
This book is also ideal reading for anybody who wants to improve their general mathematical literacy. Perhaps many people who don't know much abo...more
This book is also ideal reading for anybody who wants to improve their general mathematical literacy. Perhaps many people who don't know much abo...more
"The difficulty is that it is easy to prove a problem is easy, but hard to prove that it is hard!"
I'm probably not unique in that I made it through a lot of math without ever really understanding what I was doing, just flipping equations around until an answer poured out. I had a trigonometry professor who at least pushed understanding what you were doing. It was in my first semester of the calculus that math started to make sense. "What Is Mathematics?" was a clear inspiration for some of the l...more
I'm probably not unique in that I made it through a lot of math without ever really understanding what I was doing, just flipping equations around until an answer poured out. I had a trigonometry professor who at least pushed understanding what you were doing. It was in my first semester of the calculus that math started to make sense. "What Is Mathematics?" was a clear inspiration for some of the l...more
I wanted to like this book. I really did. But it's just too old. It will never be a classic; it's just outdated.
There are references to ongoing problems to solve Hilbert's 10th problem, but no acknowledgement of Alan Turing's contributions (probably because his work was still classified or unknown at the time of publication). Godel's "recent work on incompleteness" is a footnote to the summary of Russell's "great work", which made me snicker.
The notation is pretty bad as well. Many of the font...more
There are references to ongoing problems to solve Hilbert's 10th problem, but no acknowledgement of Alan Turing's contributions (probably because his work was still classified or unknown at the time of publication). Godel's "recent work on incompleteness" is a footnote to the summary of Russell's "great work", which made me snicker.
The notation is pretty bad as well. Many of the font...more
Wow, that was absolutely beautiful! Thanks for the heads-up, Alex! I really, really wish I'd have had this book back as a senior or junior in high school; I'd have been able to plan out my math classes early on much better (why on earth did I take Dynamics and Bifurcations?!?! and how did I avoid taking a serious vector spaces/manifold calculus class? would have been nice for upper-level physics! oh well!). I think this will be my default high school graduation present to anyone with an inkling...more
От тази книга тръгна моят интерес към математиката. Показва красотата на точните науки, водейки читателя за ръка по много интересна пътечка.
Einstein put it best when he said: "[this book is:] a lucid representation of the fundamental concepts and methods of the whole field of mathematics." It really is.
This is one of the best high school level extensions in mathematics. Originally called -
Mathematics for Lori - it was written for his daughter.
Mathematics for Lori - it was written for his daughter.
One of my favorite books on mathematics. Also, one of Einstein's favorites.
This is a very good text , but too much for me
Jun 18, 2012
Matthew
marked it as to-read
uw independent math study?
Skimmed through and it is quite useful, very similar to one of Felix Klein's books in terms of style. A little too mathematics for my purposes which is more towards physics, some insights are good nonetheless.
Feb 06, 2013
Laila
added it
to read
Mathy.
Letti solo alcuni pezzi che mi interessavano / servivano. Ottimo libro, andrebbe adottato come libro di testo. Spiegano bene e non sono noiosi. Awesome!
"A lucid representation of the fundamental concepts and methods of the whole field of mathematics" - Albert Einstein.
What else do I have to say!?
What else do I have to say!?
Library copy returned, then removed from circulation for bad binding. No other copy available to read - I want to finish this one!
Il mondo matematico spiegato ai principianti e agli esperti.
Excellent, actual use
Jun 16, 2013
Jennifer
marked it as to-read
Jun 16, 2013
Stephen Molinari
marked it as to-read
Jun 15, 2013
Jesse Jones
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Jun 15, 2013
Chad O'Haver
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Jun 14, 2013
Santanu Chatterjee
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Jun 14, 2013
Bernard
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Jun 13, 2013
Tamar
marked it as to-read
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Jun 27, 2010 03:44am