Explain this
Whoever thought of that?
How the publisher describes it:
“This book contains selected articles on the History of Mathematics that first appeared in SYMmetryplus from 1999 to 2008, which have been updated where new information has come to light since the original publication date. ”
Review by Peter Hall
In brief:
Personally I want to read this carefully to increase my knowledge, and professionally I want to read this to help me teach better. I’m sure there are longer and more detailed books concerning the history of mathematics but this looks like a good starting place.
“If your school has a section in the library for maths books then this book would be ideal”
If you are good at keeping old copies of magazines then you won’t need this book because you’ll have a collection of Symmetry Plus magazines and you can find these articles with ease. Or you could be like me and needing someone else to catalogue things for you. I’m sure there are people who can accurately find all they need from the magazines they keep – but it just isn’t me.
So this book contains 27 articles from Symmetry Plus describing different mathematicians from Archimedes to Ramanujan (by date range). Each mathematician is treated to between two and five pages of this book with colour photos, charts and other illustrations. The articles are very clear and are easy for capable students to follow, or a teacher to draw on to use with a class. Many articles have questions for the reader to follow (with answers).
I’m very aware that I don’t present enough history of mathematics to my students. The accounts in this book are fascinating. I’m sure my students would benefit from learning more about the background to the mathematics that we teach and this book will help me do this with comparative ease.
Personally I want to read this carefully to increase my knowledge, and professionally I want to read this to help me teach better. I’m sure there are longer and more detailed books concerning the history of mathematics but this looks like a good starting place.
If your school has a section in the library for maths books then this book would be ideal, or perhaps for more-interested sixth form students.
Peter Hall • AST Mathematics, Imberhorne School, East Grinstead
ISBN 978 0-906588-68-0
The Mathematical Association
£14.59
