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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
A wonderful book of short essays displaying the elegance of math in a grand and easily digestible format. This book started life as a series of columns in the New York Times as an introduction to and has been expanded on a bit. Each chapter is the length of a typical column, and while the book is by no means comprehensive, there are copious notes and reading lists in the back should one want to explore topics further.
The book starts with basics like numbers and addition and continues right on to infinity. Filled with history, anecdotes and *gasp* how we actually use each type of math in our daily lives, the book is written in a very comfortable style. Filled with humor and the joy of learning, I found it refreshing and inviting to it's approach.
The book starts with basics like numbers and addition and continues right on to infinity. Filled with history, anecdotes and *gasp* how we actually use each type of math in our daily lives, the book is written in a very comfortable style. Filled with humor and the joy of learning, I found it refreshing and inviting to it's approach.
As someone who doesn't actually like math, I didn't expect to like this book. I was looking for a book that would stretch my thinking and be a challenge. But I didn't expect to enjoy the challenge so much! This book is written in such a fun and clever way that I found myself thinking differently about the subject that I actively avoided in high school. His ability to show how math is being used in every day functions was so interesting and intriguing. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone - math lover or not!
Before you skip past this and assume that because I'm a geek-wannabe that I read math texts for fun, let me assure you: IT IS NOT SO. I was introduced to the fact that maybe--just maybe--I like math by a brilliant book given to me years ago (Innumeracy, by John Allen Paulos). Since then, I have had my eye on math writing. And with this book, I discovered a gem. It's a collection of articles by Strogatz that appeared in the New York Times and they are clever, informative, and interesting. Add this to your to-read list for fun. You deserve it, whether you like math or not.
Makes math fun, approachable, and accessible. For almost the first half of the book. Then I got too dumb for it. But if you got anywhere near a respectable score on the math portion of the SATs (I didn't) then I'm pretty sure you will find the majority of the book fun, approachable, and accessible.
A fun, breezy, not too long survey of a variety of topics in mathematics. I forgot that at least some of this had appeared on the New York Times website, so I may actually have read some of this before. Despite not having studied math since 1995, I found it very easy to follow and would even have welcomed some more complexity. Not one for the math majors, but a good read for those of us who may once have known the difference between differential and integral calculus, but could no longer remember what it is. (This book will refresh your memory.)
Anyone who teaches math should read this book and think...how can I make the study of mathematics this exciting and relevant! As someone who teaches math to seventh graders, I can't wait to add this "joy" to my own teaching. Thank you Steven Strogatz for an inspiring book.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
[did not finish--first sections for class] if I had to read a book that explains the fundamentals of mathematics to me, this would be it. Doesn't talk down to you but is still accessible.