Customer Reviews

Mathematician's Delight (Dover Science Books)

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W. W. Sawyer was one of the greatest teachers of mathematics within the past century. The continuing popularity (to the extent that books on math can be popular) of his other books -- *Prelude to Mathematics* (which deals with advanced math) and *Vision in Elementary Mathematics* (which deals with arithmetic and basic algebra) -- serve as evidence for the wonderful ability he had to make math seem useful and interesting to everyone from the math-phobic to the dedicated mathematician.

Contrary to some other reviews, Sawyer's prose was NOT dull or dry. We have to keep in mind the fact that *Mathematician's Delight* was written for an audience in the 1940's to 1950's Britain and Canada. Obviously, the style and tone won't be consistent with the way that we 21st century Americans are used to. But even giving him that benefit of the doubt, Sawyer's prose is always lively, entertaining, and full of insights into his chosen subject of mathematics as well as insight into why many people struggle with aspects of that subject.

I definitely agree with the positive aspects of the other reviews. This indeed is an excellent book to take you from the basics of algebra all the way up to and beyond calculus. I sincerely hope that someone brings this book back in print.

This is a great book. Highly recommended by me to be read by everyone especially students who fear mathemtics. "So long as a subject seems dull, you can be sure that you are approcahing it form the wrong angle" - W.W.Sawyer

It was worth reviewing just to find out about the basis of Euclid's work in the generalization of rules of thumb of carpentry. I've used this material over and over in teaching mathematics and physics.

W. W. Sawyer, Mathematician's Delight (Penguin, 1943)

I approached this with some trepidation, as when I picked it up recently, I discovered a makeshift bookmark (that had a date on it-- July of 1994) stuck at the beginning of chapter four. Had I started it and just forgotten, or had I given up thanks to the author's style?

The former, thankfully. While Sawyer may well have been a fine teacher-- and this book does present that side of him a number of times-- his prose is often dry as week-old bread. If you can get past the insomnia factor, however, his methods of explaining math were even able to help me (who failed calculus 101 twice) understand the uses of integrals and derivatives. Rather than trying to explain mathematics in a conventional manner, Sawyer attacks the problem for those of us who never grasped these things in class by taking what was then (and still is, to an extent) a revolutionary approach to explaining maths: tell the student what the problems will be used for, and offer concrete examples, BEFORE explaining the mechanics of the thing. It's beautiful. Too bad more math teachers haven't read it. They probably couldn't get past the prose. ***