Everybody knows that mathematics is indispensable to physics--imagine where we'd be today if Einstein and Newton didn't have the math to back up... read full description
reviews
Feb 24, 2011
Shifting
rated it: 
A delightful tour through various fields of math. Levi develops intuitive explanations for mathematical concepts by performing thought experiements. The theme that draws the book together is that the experiments rely on the reader's familiarity with real-world objects such as springs and fish tanks. The book does not focus on generalizable problem-solving techniques, so it wasn't especially helpful to me for use in class. But I found it fun that you can use a fishtank to demonstrate the Pythag
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Nov 02, 2010
Joe
rated it: 
My assumption going into this book was that the author would use physical reasoning to make higher mathematical concepts clearer and more accessible. It's a great idea: Gauss' Law in 2D can be imagined as a spreading puddle of oil, of course!
Instead you get a mess of contrived analogies that are literary Rube Goldberg devices at best and not applicable at worst. The author would spend pages upon pages setting up these exercises and, though some were well done (like where to park in a d More...
Instead you get a mess of contrived analogies that are literary Rube Goldberg devices at best and not applicable at worst. The author would spend pages upon pages setting up these exercises and, though some were well done (like where to park in a d More...
Feb 20, 2012
Joshua
rated it: 
Fun and enlightening!
Wish i had this book back in my undergrad physics days...
Wish i had this book back in my undergrad physics days...
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