World Famous Comics: Introducing Mathematics, New Edition (Introducing... S.)
Introducing Mathematics, New Edition (Introducing... S.)
By: Ziauddin Sardar Publisher: Totem Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Totem Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 176 Publication Date: October 25, 2005
Product Description: Introducing Mathematics traces the story of mathematics from the ancient world to modern times, describing the great discoveries and providing an accessible introduction to such topics as number-systems, geometry and algebra, calculus, the theory of the infinite, statistical reasoning and chaos theory.
Not one of the stars of the Introducing series. The Introducing series, employing as it does different illustrators and authors for each of its titles, is definitely hit-and-miss. Although I personally enjoyed this book a good deal, I have to say it counts as one of the misses.
The book focuses a good deal (too much in my opinion) on the personalities of figures from the history of mathematics, and when it finally gets down to the business of explaining difficult concepts from calculus and number theory, it skips around and uses terminology that was never defined in the book, tossing about opaque formulas that aren't explained, and so forth. As it happens, it was exactly that sort of thing that turned me off of math to begin with. It all starts out very interesting and clear enough, until somewhere along the line I feel like the bus is still barreling on down the road, but I've been left along the wayside.
Naturally some of this has to do with my own undeniable ineptitude when it comes to mathematics (part of the reason I picked up this book to begin with). But my main complaint with the book was with the illustrations. For the most part, they're distracting and unhelpful. Relying mostly on puns and including speech bubbles that explain and belabor the pun but don't have any thing to do with the math (the page on cyclic functions is obscured by drawings of people on bicycles, for example). Not only that, but for the most part the drawings themselves aren't original. In reading this book I had the distinct feeling that I'd seen many of the pictures before, and sure enough a quick google search determined that the illustrator has just pasted various royalty-free illustrations and shoddy clipart onto every page.
That said, I did find the book itself worth the read. But I doubt I'll be returning to it again, and it's short enough that I could have just read it in the bookstore and saved myself the money. I wish I had.
One of my favorites I'm a big fan of the Introducing... series, and to me, this is one of the best.
Ethnomathematica and the universal language of maths as the tool of science This book doesn't tutor you in mathematics so if that is what you want then go elsewhere now.
If you are looking to learn mathematics without a good cause then I would say that you better have the attention span to learn something absolutely mundane if you don't have a reason for it. A reason to learn mathematics is as vital to grasping mathematics as our brain needing a spinal cord to work. It would be best to begin with a cause to learn it and unfortunately just needing to know it for exams doesn't help matters either. I would suggest therefore that you turn to other books in this series like "Introducing Newton and classical physics" and "Introducing the Universe". "Introducing Quantum Theory" and "Introducing Relativity" are the big two science books that can be understood somewhat rudimentary outside of the developed mathematics to support it. I think trying to understand those topics provides enough motives to complete a full study and application of the language of mathematics. Then this book becomes an engrossing essential.
Mathematics is not hard if learned the correct way. Mathematics is easy if you spend the right amount of time (lifetime really but in a truly applied year you will have advanced dramatically) on it and know what to learn and in what order. Buy a calculator. Read and learn the manual. In the manual you will come across terminology that you would like to comprehend. This book lays it all out for you.
"Introducing Mathematics" explains the historical record for mathematics and its development. By the end of the journey you would have an overview that maps mathematics. Then you should go about learning about each part in other specialized books. The main maths to learn after this one are algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical mathematics and then the big calculus. Getting to calculus is what it is all about. There are then various laws and rules and applications like statistics after that but the goal here is a slow progressive study of the above maths topics before moving into calculus. This is what it is all about.
Core material: History of Mathematics culminating in Ethnomathematics is covered in detail Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Hebrew, Middle Eastern and European contributions to maths Counting Representing numbers as figures Zero Special and large numbers Powers Logarithms (logs) Calculation Equations (linear, quadratic, cubic and degree equations) Algebra Simultaneous equations Measurements, error bars and fridges Pythagoras Zeno's paradoxes Geometry Binomials Pascal's triangle, Jain and Vedic and meru-prastara Trigonometry Integers Analytics Functions Calculus Differentiation Derivatives Integration Berkeley Euler Non-Euclidean N-Dimension spaces Groups and sets Boolean algebra Cantor Godel's theorem Turning machine Fractals Chaos theory Topology Number theory Statistics P-values and outliners Probability Uncertainty principle Policy numbers
Overall this is exactly the kind of book I wanted to read. A starter book that just covers all the stuff you need to learn for calculus. Some of the topics are explained harshly but study them enough and you will come around to appreciating the time spent for just getting the point the book makes. When it clicks the feeling is great. Enjoy mathematics.
Pomobabble and Cartoons This book briefly touches on many areas of maths, some old and some new, often uses the passive voice in regards to historically significant theorems in math without reference to the fuller context or reasons why they were deemed significant or who proved them and how. Being an "introducing" of course the book is limited in its scope and can only scratch the surface for most of its topics, of which it does an Ok job with.
But the bigger bone I have to pick is with the cultural studies stuff towards the end. Mathematics IS a cultural activity, and is what it is today, not stricly because of Eurocentric hegemony and cultural domination with value-laden theorems, but because mathematical ideas and approaches to proof are "traded" amongst cultures in a broader and larger Marketplace of Ideas.
Some recent books challenging Platonism (Where Mathematics Comes From, The Mathematical Experience) are better constructed with more limited theses.
Good overview for wide audience I found this book to be quite enjoyable. The section on Muslim mathematicians was particularly interesting. Did you know that Muslim mathematics made great contributions to trigonometry?
Buy this book if you want an overview of mathematics -- including the history of mathematics. The visual treatment make this book fun to read and attractive to all ages.
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