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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
A book that succeeds in explaining through practical examples the macro topics of Mathematics, with a witty sense of humor. I understood more in 5 pages about ellipsis & parabolas than in my academic life :) It will go to my personal lifetime library
This was my introduction to Steven Strogatz and, in him, I have found a kindred spirit...a teacher who enjoys personifying math for the sake of clarification and understanding. While my non-nerd friends roll their eyes at my choice of this book, I can honestly say I enjoyed this read and found some things I can use with my students in the future.
It's been a long time coming...but I FINALLY finished this book. It's good, but it could definitely get pretty dry. I'm a mood reader, and trying to get in the mood to read a math book can be hard, even if you find math interesting. Read my full review here.
This book is about math, but it doesn't have much math in it. So mostly it's pretty easy to read. It must have been very difficult to write about some complex math ideas for non-mathematicians! For the most part, Strogatz does a good job. There were, however, a few parts where I confess I couldn't be bothered to think hard enough to get through the little bit of math there was and I just skimmed those parts. ;) Other times, I felt that Strogatz lingered too long over an easy point. It's probably impossible to get this balance perfect for every single reader and their particular level of interest and ability.
I enjoyed this book because, although I am not knowledgeable about or skilled in math, I do find it fascinating and appreciate its beauty and amazingness. If you fall into the same category, I recommend it. If, however, you are good at math, don't bother. You will likely already know most of this stuff and you will be frustrated by how elementary it is.
It gets only 3 stars because I was reading it for pleasure and it's hard for a book about math — however fascinating I find math — to score any better than that, compared to good fiction. That it scored as highly as 3 stars shows that the author did a good job of making difficult ideas accessible to a non-mathematician.
I enjoyed this book because, although I am not knowledgeable about or skilled in math, I do find it fascinating and appreciate its beauty and amazingness. If you fall into the same category, I recommend it. If, however, you are good at math, don't bother. You will likely already know most of this stuff and you will be frustrated by how elementary it is.
It gets only 3 stars because I was reading it for pleasure and it's hard for a book about math — however fascinating I find math — to score any better than that, compared to good fiction. That it scored as highly as 3 stars shows that the author did a good job of making difficult ideas accessible to a non-mathematician.
Most of this book consisted on material already known to me which served as a quick refresh on it all. As for the 'new' information, I found it brilliantly explained. It was all presented clearly and insightfully. A great job was done here.
I'm an elementary school math teacher, and I picked this up hoping it would give me some good teaching ideas. It's definitely aimed at a higher level than my kiddos, but it's easy to read and made me feel like I could understand higher order math. That's not the same as I understand it, but Strogatz does a good job of simplifying big ideas for laypeople. It's funny, fast, and a good primer/reminder for those of us not using calculus in our daily life.
Really enjoyable book if you love maths. Even learnt some interesting facts about maths that I'd been using for years but didn't know the origins of them! Only criticism would be more maths - in terms of, for example, the chapter on differentiation, it would have been more complete to include a differential equation to really show what they are. Likewise for the discussion on Maxwell equations.