Has anyone read this? I was thinking about buying it, but I was reading the reviews and some reviews say it is impossible to understand without a lot of background in mathematics and the other reviews say anyone can read it and understand it. I don't know which to believe. I definitely want to read it if I can though. I only have a little background in calculus and won't be taking my first course until this coming school year. Any opinions?

Well, it's fairly inexpensive, so why not buy it, or get it from the local library or something. If you find it hard to read, it might make a reasonable door stop

Has anyone read this? I was thinking about buying it, but I was reading the reviews and some reviews say it is impossible to understand without a lot of background in mathematics and the other reviews say anyone can read it and understand it. I don't know which to believe. I definitely want to read it if I can though. I only have a little background in calculus and won't be taking my first course until this coming school year. Any opinions?

 

I have it but only read sections of if.

 

The book has a lot of words in it, and not that much math. While he tries to talk about some advanced things, he uses alot of plain english and less math.

 

I don't know you, but I think you could read it, and if there are some details that appear strange, there is still a large part of the book that is easy reading. It's over 1000 pages and nothing stops you from reading only certain chapters.

 

Wether you like his style of reasoning or writing though, is a matter of personal taste.

 

/Fredrik

I'm on page 600 right now on that book. It's a good book and very detailed, though some of the things he will present will be over your head because it has quite some dense, difficult mathematics. But otherwise, I recommend it, as it explains what current scientists are looking and dealing with, without watering it down or oversimplifying things, of which you see commonly in most pop-science books.

I was meaning to read it, I got through the first chapter or so, then there was a storm, a window blew open and all the pages got waterlogged. I think it's more or less recovered now so I'm going to take another shot at reading it. Damn storm...

It's a good book. You don't have to understand any of the math he tries to 'teach', but it makes it not only make more sense, but all the more beautiful if you do.

I do not have the book myself, but I suppose you could google some of the maths, or just use a calculator. For the english, if it is that in which you find hard may I suggest you use an Oxford dictionary?

I do not have the book myself, but I suppose you could google some of the maths...

 

Wikipedia and planetmath are good.

 

or just use a calculator.

 

A standard scientific calculator would be of very limited use. (Mathematica and similar may be of more help, but still limited)

 

The book deals with many areas of modern mathematics as needed in applications in theoretical physics. A such, it is a difficult but very illuminating book. I highly recommend it, but warn you it is not a pop-sci book.