50 Mathematics Ideas You Really Need To Know (50 ideas) |  | Author: Tony Crilly
Publisher: Book Sales, Inc.
List Price: $8.99
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 124752
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 7.1 x 1
ISBN: 1847241476
Dewey Decimal Number: 510
EAN: 9781847241474
ASIN: 1847241476
Publication Date: September 17, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Beginning with zero itself and concluding with the last great unsolved problem, this book introduces the origins of mathematics from Egyptian fractions to Roman numerals; explains the near mystical significance of pi and primes, Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio; tells you the things they didn’t at school – what calculus, statistics and algebra can actually do, and the very real uses of imaginary numbers; illuminates the big ideas of relativity, chaos theory, fractals, genetics and hyperspace; reveals the unspoken reasoning behind Sudoku and code cracking, lotteries and gambling, money management and compound interest; and explores the latest mind shattering developments, including the solving of Fermat’s last theorem and the million dollar question of the Riemann hypothesis.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
 For enthusiastic amateurs February 15, 2010
Invictus (Brisbane)
Glancing at this book, I first tended to assume that it would not help me. Like (I suppose) many other people, I find maths interesting and assume that I know the basics. But, somewhat to my embarrassment, I discovered that in many parts of this book there are explanations of important points which I did not understand.
With astonishing skill, the author manages to give brief accounts of complex ideas, without sacrificing accuracy. An example is section 37 on genetics, which sets out the basic ideas of the application of mathematics to the science. Another is the discussion of Bayesian theory in chapter 32. This latter is an important notion, comprehension of which could sensibly be made compulsory for all citizens.
Some of the chapters, such as the discussion of infinity, will be no news to most likely readers -- but even there you can admire the author's work in condensing Cantor's main notions into such a short space.
INVICTUS
 Fun and Informative Book of Math Facts - Recommended! February 11, 2010
CFH (Blue Ridge Summit, PA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
We gave my high school aged kids "50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know" to familiarize them with concepts that they would find interesting and quite possibly need later in life. Fortunately my kids are math and science inclined so the book was well received. I also found it a good refresher to concepts that I had long forgotten (it's been a long time since my school days) and enjoyed casually thumbing through it.
This is not an in-depth look into the 50 ideas covered, but rather an overview with each concept being given four pages of mostly layman understandable explanations. So Pi, Relativity, and Fermat's Last Theorem (a good book on this is Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem) all get the same coverage, which keeps the book accessible but sometimes frustrating when you want a little more. Like another reviewer pointed out, it would have been good to have references to other sources.
We all enjoyed this a good bit and it is an ideal "bathroom book" since the sections are short nuggets.
Recommended!
CFH
 50 Ways to Mention Mathematics January 2, 2010
John M. Ford (near DC, MD USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book contains short introductions to 50 topics in mathematics that will make readers more numerically literate. It can help you understand a newspaper or magazine article that becomes a little more technical than you expected. It is also a good starting place to learn more about mathematical concepts you just find interesting.
Each chapter is self-contained and delivers a two- to four-page capsule treatment of its topic. Most chapters contain definitions of key ideas, relevant historical quotes, and timelines across the bottom of the first two pages. The book makes particularly effective use of graphs and diagrams to illustrate important concepts. Boxes set off from the text effectively summarize supporting information. Example boxes include "666 - The Number of the Numerologist" (p. 39), "Building with Triangles" (p. 87), and "From Meteorology to Mathematics" about chaos theory (p. 107).
Several chapters are particularly informative for such brief introductions. "Logic" (p. 64) outlines the basic processes of deductive logic and points to more advanced types of formal reasoning. The "Calculus" chapter (p. 76) is a good overview for a high school or college student who considers taking a calculus class and wants to know what to expect. "The Four-Color Problem" (p. 120) introduces a practical topography issue relevant to the work done by cartographers and graphic artists. Finally, the Matrices chapter (p. 156) is an introduction to a type of algebra that many students find difficult. The basics of matrix manipulation are explained using the practical problem of airline flight scheduling.
Tony Crilly's book has a good topic index and an adequate two-page glossary, but lacks references to supporting literature. This is an unfortunate omission in an introductory book. Readers should be encouraged toward further reading when they are most eager for more knowledge. This is a recurring flaw in the "50 ideas" series.
Great book! Easy to understand, entertaining to read. October 22, 2009
Rebecca L. Murray (Denver, Co, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book very much. Contrary to some reviews, this isn't a text book; it's an informative reference book. It won't teach you how to find square and cube roots. It will, however, tell you the history behind who first discovered them, how and why it's important. I'm actually buying a second copy, as my brother "borrowed" my first copy and I don't expect to be getting it back.
Good topics, but mediocre exposition July 1, 2009
Laura Carey (Bryn Mawr, PA USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Overall, a very interesting little book. I like the choices of the 50 ideas. But I'm frustrated by two things. First, the writing is poor, making some passages more difficult to understand than they need to be. The proofreading is poor too. Second, and more important, is that there is not enough space in many of the topics to do more than mention some interesting tidbits. For example, formulas are often presented without any explanation of their origin, so the reader has to just take them at their word, and settle for a sound bite instead of a real understanding. Even with these limitations, I think the book is worth reading, but perhaps another author might have done the topics more justice, and perhaps fewer ideas explained at more length would have been more satisfying.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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