The Best Writing on Mathematics by

by Mircea Pitici

Excellent Book

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Science

Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as many of the papers interested me as in 2014 or 2015, but still enough to keep me going

[Ray Savarda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good selection, not too many that jumped up and were really great, but good.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is typical of anthologies, in that for almost all people, some of the papers will excite while others will be somewhat dull. For not everyone is interested in all mathematics in all the ranges from research to history to education to fun.
Yet, there is also something in here that will titillate the math parts of every person interested in mathematics. The level of the papers is that of popular mathematics, there are few equations and those are generally below the level of college mathematics.
The papers are organized into the sections:

*) Mathematics alive
*) Mathematicians and the practice of mathematics
*) Mathematics and its applications
*) Mathematics education
*) History and philosophy of mathematics
*) Mathematics in the media

One of my favorite papers was “If Mathematics Is a Language, How Do You Swear in It? “ by David Wagner. He notes that one category of swearing is to say something non-permissible, which is rather easy to do in mathematics. It contains an amusing collection of analogies between verbal and mathematical improprieties. Like many other items in this collect, it would be an excellent article to have math classes read and discuss.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission and this review appears on Amazon.

[dead letter office · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Freeman Dyson piece is great. The Carlo Celucci piece is awful (but only from the readability, coherency, enjoyability, and correctness standpoints). The others that I read are somewhere in between, but mostly worth reading. This book is on standby until December since I left it with someone I won't see for 6 months.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

As expected for an anthology, some pieces were excellent while others were junk. In the early going only about 50% of the essays were to my liking, but the last half of the collection was generally quite good with only one stinker. I'd recommend it to those who have done at least a little mathematics themselves.

[Robert Giambo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed quality of short essays on mathematics. Of interest to the mathematically inclined only.

[Alan Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The articles varied greatly in degree of difficulty and in degree of interest. Worth reading, but I skipped some articles.