hi,

 

beginning to self study mathematics and was wondering if you could recommend some favourite books, ones that you found helpful or progressed your interest in maths.

Would like books that are accessible to the average reader and provide a basis to build on.

 

David

Self study for the sake of actually gaining a qualification, or just learning for the hell of it?

Do you want a shallow introduction to some of the most interesting ideas or do you want to be able to solve problems yourself?

How old are you? What level of maths have you worked at so far?

im not doing this for a maths qualification. took ordinary level maths through out second level school (high school) but have just developed and interest in maths lately. looking for both a general introduction to maths and problem solving. am studying gen science at the moment. want a maths texts that will further my appreciation of maths and not some kind of "maths for scientists". would like a text from the basics up so it will act as a refresher and clarify principles i may not fully understand. hope this helps.

Hi macdave,

I think the book "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences" by Mary Boas is a very handy book to have around.

 

Cheers,

w=f[z]

ok but more in general math rather than specific. assume i never studied maths before! what would be the best introduction to maths. you see my knowledge of maths is shakey so i rather not presume anything.

Hi macdave,

What is your math background (e.g., precalculus, calc I, calc II, etc.)? That is, what is the highest level of math you have taken? And what is the highest level of math you are comfortable with?

 

Cheers

ok were different maths course studied algebra,calculus,statistics,arithemitic. but really im looking for something from the ground up.

ok were different maths course studied algebra,calculus,statistics,arithemitic. but really im looking for something from the ground up.

 

In that case, you can just go to your local library and grab a few math books. Generally, none of them are beyond high school level.

I think what you are looking for are popularized mathematics books. Don't be fooled! Popularized books will often teach you a lot if you aren't already an expert on the subject

 

I recommend a few books actually. Usually my number one out of hand recommendation is William Dunham's "Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics". Besides that I think there are many great books but I would start with that one. It treats math theorems like works of art, discusses them in historical context as well as the other theorems used in proving them, and then tends to give the aftermath [pun intended!] of the proof.

As far as pop-maths goes, I'm currently really enjoying The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved by Mario Livio.

 

On a more general note, although I haven't actually read it yet, I've heard lots of good things about Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Gowers.

ok but more in general math rather than specific. assume i never studied maths before! what would be the best introduction to maths. you see my knowledge of maths is shakey so i rather not presume anything.

 

A majority of people on my course have recommended 'Countdown to Mathematics vols 1-2' by Lynne Graham and David Sargent, it starts from the very basics, so I've been told.

As far as pop-maths goes, I'm currently really enjoying The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved by Mario Livio.

 

I've met Mario by the way... he co-authored some papers with a former professor of mine.

 

As far as pop-sci goes, I enjoyed "Bridges to Infinity" by Ian Stewart. Seems like there was another few that I enjoyed too... but it's been a long time now since I read them.

 

I still think the Boas book is really good for a coverage of the important aspects of a lot of different areas. You might check out the table of contents on Amazon if you're interested.

 

Cheers

have been searching the web and a book that surfaces alot is "Mathematics for the Million" by Lancelot Hogben. has anybody got any views on this one have been checking out all the titles mentioned so far.

Haven't heard of that one...

 

but I would just really really recommend you go to a library and see whats available on the shelf for free. In the Dewey Decimal system the mathematics books all have call numbers from 510-520. In the Library of Congress system they're sections Q-QA. Can you get to a library?

I figured instead of wasting a new thread id add to a older one simular topic. Im a 22 yr old dropout whos deeply wanting to better my math I plan on going back to school soon and Id like to start learning as much as Possible. My deep love for astronomy has triggerd a math bug, and last math Ive taken was Algebra... I believe I failed it due to skipping school.

 

So anyone know any good algebra books too get someone who hasnt been active in the math world starting? Id love to hear

I figured instead of wasting a new thread id add to a older one simular topic. Im a 22 yr old dropout whos deeply wanting to better my math I plan on going back to school soon and Id like to start learning as much as Possible. My deep love for astronomy has triggerd a math bug, and last math Ive taken was Algebra... I believe I failed it due to skipping school.

 

So anyone know any good algebra books too get someone who hasnt been active in the math world starting? Id love to hear

When you say Algebra... do you mean what is more colloquially called "highschool algebra" or "college algebra" that has to do with variables and polynomials or are you referring to what's more often called "abstract algebra" with groups and rings?

Im def talking highschool, Im looking for ebooks. Ive already gone to my local library town of 2k people and the 1 book they got was checked out. So Any ebooks I can get from torrent sites or links would be wonderful. I cant wait to start expanding my future in this fascinating subject!

You can check around for some Glencoe company books. They've ought to have some downloadable ones somewhere, but they start off sort of rough. They get a lot done, but it's sort of hard to understand what they talk about. They do have some problems in the books for you to solve.

Thanks I'll go search for some ebooks!

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Math

 

here are some open source math texts from wikibooks.

im not doing this for a maths qualification. took ordinary level maths through out second level school (high school) but have just developed and interest in maths lately. looking for both a general introduction to maths and problem solving. am studying gen science at the moment. want a maths texts that will further my appreciation of maths and not some kind of "maths for scientists". would like a text from the basics up so it will act as a refresher and clarify principles i may not fully understand. hope this helps.

If this is the case then I would recommend "Mathematics and the Physical world" by Morris Kline, as personally, this book has inspired me a lot in my studies of Mathematics even though it is a little dated now.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Math

 

here are some open source math texts from wikibooks.

 

Ah you beat me to it

 

Also I'm sure The Teaching Company has some resources you might like, as I'm thoroughly enjoyed every other product of theirs that I've used. They're audio and video lectures.

 

Edit: Also along similar lines, http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Mathematics

You can check out most of these books that you were recommended on Google Books page, as they have them scanned, to see whether the level of maths suits you, and then go pick em up from the library. OR, you could download some books too as they have about 10,000-book collection of math books for free as well; http://books.google.com/books?q=mathematics&as_brr=1

I haven't looked through it much but I'm sure you can find something of interest, otherwise local library will do just fine

If you are seriously interested in learning mathematics at a university level, you should consider reading Foundations of Mathematics by Stuart and Tall. It was the set text for the foundations course at Warwick and does a good job of introducing some of the elementary building blocks of mathematics (simple logic, set theory, proof by contradiction/induction, equivalence relations etc).