Thinking Mathematically 1st Edition

by J. Mason (Author), L. Burton (Author), K. Stacey (Author)

10 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0201102383

ISBN-10: 0201102382

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

More Buying Choices

6 New from $34.25 21 Used from $2.46

27 used & new from $2.46

See All Buying Options

There is a newer edition of this item:

Thinking Mathematically (2nd Edition)
$109.53
(2)
In Stock.

Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

Thinking Mathematically unfolds the processes which lie at the heart of mathematics. It demonstrates how to encourage, develop, and foster the processes which seem to come naturally to mathematicians. In this way, a deep seated awareness of the nature of mathematical thinking can grow. The book is increasingly used to provide students at a tertiary level with some experience of mathematical thinking processes.

Thinking Mathematically

Available from these sellers.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

G. Polya

93

in Geometry & Topology
Paperback
$14.21
Bonnie Averbach

13

Paperback
$14.18
Boris A. Kordemsky

110

Paperback
$9.38
Harold L. Schoen

2

Paperback
$40.95
Jo Boaler

5

in STEM Education
Paperback
$15.90
Arthur Engel

20

Paperback
$86.00

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Pearson; 1 edition (January 11, 1982)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0201102382
ISBN-13: 978-0201102383
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 8.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3417 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics
- #6427 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars

5 star		90%
4 star		10%
3 star		0%
2 star		0%
1 star		0%

See all 10 customer reviews

Share your thoughts with other customers

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful

Great for the transition to university maths

By William Stevenson on May 17, 2001

Format: Paperback

This book helped me quite a great deal with my foray into university mathematics, which are quite different from the algorithmic problems one is often dealt in highschool. Before reading this book, I would often read a problem and just be /stuck/. If it were a test, I would put a question mark in the answer blank and just move along. This is because I didn't have a sense of where to begin with novel problems. After reading this book, though, I learned the tricks of specializing and generalizing. Much of the advice given in the book might seem obvious ("start with small cases," "draw a picture," etc.) but doesn't really get thought of during a stressful exam. By working through this book (and you have to *work* through it, don't expect to read it like a novel trying to glean advice), any sufficiently mathematically-minded person can deserve to call themself a mathematician, for they will truly begin to think like one. After it, they should check out Velleman's "How to Prove It" and R.P. Burn's "Numbers and Functions."

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful

you learn mathematics by doing it.

By David E. Molnar on September 5, 2000

Format: Paperback

I used this book for a course I taught at the University of Connecticut. It has a lot to offer, especially for the price. Sample problem: draw a bunch of lines across a piece of paper. Can the resulting picture be colored only in black and white, with no adjoining regions sharing the same color? Works through examples like this one in excruciating detail, encourages the reader to sweat through problems, the payoff coming when you start to see patterns not in the problems themselves, but in how you approach them. Last chapter consists entirely of problems, with suggestions on how to attack, and then extend them.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Best guidance available for an aspiring math researcher

By Abhi on September 23, 2012

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

The big idea is that for someone who is new to math research, there is no guidance available to solve problems (not exercises in texts but true math problems....there is a difference.....problems can be solved only through research while exercises are meant to be solved by simply understanding the concepts well.....) in math and this book is a great substitute. For example, contest problems like that in the Olympiads are really hard. Traditionally, most trainers in the Olympiads teach the kids the various "tricks" involved in solving contest problems; however, if the kid has not seen a particular type of trick to be used in a problem, he simply fails. This has also been admitted by Arthur Engel in his preface to the fantastic problem solving book that he has written. This book (i.e. Thinking Mathematically) does not talk about tricks. As far as I am concerned, this is the REAL deal. After you graduate from that phase of life where you are done with Olympiads and Putnams, you will encounter a phase where people are actively trying to figure out facts about twin prime conjectures etc. No trick is going to help you there. Professors usually guide the student when it comes to problem solving in pure math. They talk about how to break the problem down, look at it in different angles, understand the logic in the solution to a parallel problem etc..... For a novice who is doing self study, the ONLY other book close to this one is Poyla's Mathematics and plausible reasoning. That seems to be a great book but is more detailed and speaks about induction and all that. He does speak a little bit about specialization and generalization. His other book titled How to Solve it is useless according to me.

Start from this book.Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Just what the title says

By M. Singh on February 12, 2010

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

This book really makes you think mathematically. It gives you a systematic approach to solving mathematically and analytical problems. It gives you tips for keeping your concentration on working problems involving numbers.

If you make the effort to really go through this book bit by bit it will really help you think mathematically in all areas of your life.

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

My favorite math book

By Pdecordoba on April 4, 2010

Format: Paperback

For anyone who might be interested, this book is available in Spanish as "Pensar Matemáticamente", from at least two publishers: Anagrama (Argentina) and Labor (Spain). Its ISBN is 84 335 5139 6 .

This is my favorite math book because it advises us to find problems that interest us, especially ones that have to do with things that we observe in our surroundings, and explore them without turning them into a competition. Of course, the authors also show us how to investigate such problems effectively! For such reasons, it's an effective accompaniment to books like Writing to Learn Mathematics: Strategies That Work, K-12 and Mathematical Enculturation: A Cultural Perspective on Mathematics Education (Mathematics Education Library) (In Spanish, Enculturacion Matematica: LA Educacion Matematica Desde Una Perspectiva Cultural (Spanish Edition).

This book has made me more aware of my own weaknesses, and not only those that have to do with math. Its suggestions, and the atmosphere they create in the classroom, really encourage students. Especially important are its themes that

1. Becoming "stuck" is an honorable condition, and essential to improving thinking. It happens to every mathematician. (E.g. how long did it take to prove Fermat's "Last Theorem"?)

2.Read more ›

Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Report abuse

See all 10 customer reviews (newest first)

Write a customer review