Customer Reviews

The Math Explorer: A Journey Through the Beauty of Mathematics

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If it's a stress-free survey of the math world which is needed, look no further than Jefferson Hane Weaver's The Math Explorer:a Journey Through The Berauty Of Mathematics. Specifically designed with non-specialist general readers in mind, The Math Explorer provides a 'walking tour' to math which is geared to no particular knowledge base, and offers creative and fun coverages of all the basics, from real and imaginary numbers to vectors, chance and more. History weaves through the math focus and provides a satisfying diverse tone lending to browsing and even enjoyment. Highly recommended, especially for math-allergic adults!

This book is not terrible, but it is not worth buying either. The author has a talent in simplifying the complicated. For example, in the section on probability, he gave a clear presentation of the often confused terms "mutually exclusive" and "independent" variables. The terms mean different things. He distilled the number system very succinctly in the first chapter. Unfortunately, I found two errors in the space of three pages in the algebra section. On page 73, 4x-square +2x + 2 = 14 does not solve for x= 2. Since this is a quadratic equation, it in fact has two solutions for x (but not x= 2).It solves for x= -2 or x= 1.5. Three pages later on page 76, 4x + 5 = 5x - 13 does not solve for x= -8, but rather for x= 18. These seem so careless but the reader wonders about the rest of the information. That is unfortunate. A good editor might have caught these errors and maybe others as well.