The World According to Wavelets: The Story of a Mathematical Technique in the Making

by Barbara Burke Hubbard

Drawing on interviews with leading wavelet researchers in the USA and France, this book tells the story of the rise of the field. It attempts to make the subject accessible to the non-mathematical reader, without sacrificing precision. The material is organized so that the mathematical details can be assimilated at the reader's own pace. The main text is devoid of formulas and relates a story of people and ideas, while separate boxes and appendices contain intricate discussions for the more mathematically minded.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Science

Hardcover

First published April 3, 1996

Reviews

[Darin]

The author was an English major in college, which must be why the book was so easy to read. The first part of the book is primarily historical in nature, explaining how wavelets (as of 1998) came about. In this part will be boxes with some technical details. The second half of the book has chapters for each of these boxes explaining the theory in more detail.

Note that I believe (and follow) the meanings Goodreads gives for what each number of stars means. Therefore, the majority of my ratings are 3 stars ("liked it").

[Ryan Croke]

This is a fantastic book for people that are looking for a wonderfully written book about wavelets. No way I would recommend this to someone that does not have a background in the field but if one does, this is a gem.

I wish there were more books like this; mathematics needs to be more accessible. And the question is, why isn't it??? This is a mathematically precise book, written by an English major. Why is there not more of this?

Congrats to the author and thank you for such a work. I wish you could do this for more advanced concepts.

[Khaled Julfiker]

This book inspired my Master’s thesis, where I studied and developed methods to solve LTI and LTV ODEs and receding horizon optimal control in wavelet domain.

[Erin]

An excellent example of the potential of science writing to present serious topics in a comprehensive but engaging way. Hubbard takes a seemingly inaccessible topic of ostensibly zero interest to the general public, and creates an engaging narrative that could get anyone interested in this new signal processing technique. Amazingly, this is done without watering-down or sensationalizing.

[Douglas]

Very interesting read. The author does an excellent job of explaining a mathematical technique without getting "lost in the trees"

[Matthew Macclary]

The author does a good job of simplifying the concepts as much as possible which provides a good intuitive introduction.