Maths and Numbers Books
Maths and Numbers Books
This page is really a sub-section of popular science - but given its strong numerical focus I thought I'd have a separate page. These are not heavy-weight maths tomes - they're more aimed at those with an interest in the subject and want to know about things without having to do lots of detailed study.
This slim volume explores common numerical errors and misrepresentations made by the media and others. It's an easy read and recommended for those who want to avoid similar mistakes.
A rather thicker volume by the same author as innumeracy. He describes it as part dictionary, part mathematical essays and part ruminations by a numbers man. A good book for dipping into if you want to know a little about particular topics.
This weighty tome is one of my favourite books. It won a Pulitzer prize. It's hard to explain exactly what it's all about - it is described on the cover as a metaphorical fugue in the style of Lewis Carrol. It studies self referencing systems, recursion, and number theory in mathematics, music and art. A series of dialogues and articles combined with Escher's pictures make for an entertaining, if in places challenging, read.
This book feature a series of essays that Hofstadter wrote for Scientific American. A wide variety of topics, all cleverly presented. A fun book.
A bit more specialised this one, but still very readable - a fascinating exploration of the history of prime numbers and their applications. Du Sautoy, who has appeared on TV, shares his passion for these numbers - the building blocks of mathematics. Anyone who fancies winning a few bob can have a go at proving The Riemann Hypothesis. I went to see him speak at the Edinburgh Science Festival a few years ago.
This is a fun little book with techniques for doing rapid mental calculations by a fine exponent of the art.
This rather weighty tome by a Swedish surgeon who died not long after completing it is an excellent collection of bits of mathematics mixed in with their place in history. It's not cheap, but I find it interesting to dip into from time to time. I even found a mistake in it :-).
This is the story of Paul Erdõs, an eccentric but brillian Hungarian mathematician who travelled the world with two carrier bags doing maths with anyone who would play along with him. There is a form of humorous recognition amongst mathematicians where they assign themselves Erdõs numbers - you can read about it here
A slim but entertaining volume exploring the understanding and misunderstanding of pi over the centuries, from Archimedes through to the modern day, including the attempts of the Indiana State Legislature to define it as 3.2. Beckmann is pretty direct and shares his opinions on a variety of topics, including the Romans.
This slightly involved text explores the history of the number e - named for Euler - and its role in mathematics. Along the way the role of Napier in developing logarithms is explained.
Simon Singh recounts Andrew Wiles's eventually successful attempt to prove Fermat's last theorem, taking us on a tour through the history of mathematics and the various failed attempts along the way. A very readable book for those interested in the subject.
The book of the TV series that shows the history of code and cipher breaking with lots of examples. It's possible to download a pile of related material from his website.
An excellent book written by an Irish school girl with help from her mathematician father. She hit the press at the time with her school project and what the journalists touted as an alternative to the much slower RSA algorithms. It turned out not to be - but it is a great story with lots of little mathematical puzzles and excursions within.
A book of logic puzzles that starts off relatively simple and ends up in Goedelian territory! I have never gotten to the end of it, but it's rather more accessible than the book Goedel's Proof.
A fairly specialised text that takes a spin through the methods for solving first and higher order differential equations. I have to confess to having forgotten most of what I ever learned about this important area of maths. I usually found the challenge was to translate the real world into a mathematical model that could subsequently be solved. This book was a good reminder.
A slightly more diverse and for the most part accessible text than the volume on differential equations. This looks at logic and number theory, probability and other topics. There is an error in the calculation of poker hand odds - wikipedia has the right answers and methods of calculation.
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