W.W. Sawyer's Mathematics Books

VM44

For those who like reading about mathematics, I recommend W.W. Sawyer's books.

Some titles of his are:

VM44

Did anyone find mention of these books interesting?

The "functional analysis" book might be a little advanced for the casual reader, but Sawyer writes in a gentle manner when introducing new mathematical concepts.

fokyc

VM44 - There aren't too many people interested in Mathematics!

I used Sawyer's books in 1972-74 when I was training to be a maths/Science teacher.

I just wish I had known about him when he first wrote them (1943) I was 11 then and could have coped better at school with them.

It is amazing that they are still available.

Broken Promises

This is the first time I've seen this thread.

"Mathematician's Delight" sounds interesting. Would a teenager be able to follow it? I have a relative who shares the same ability/interest in maths, and I'd like to find something that would help explain mathematical theory and practice to her.

bohm

broken promises, i would recommend this book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach

basically its like no other book. its build up around recursion and self-reference, and it illustrate these things both as small stories, music and (simple) formal systems. The underlying theme is that of Goedels (his incompleteness theorem) and tarski. If she has any interest in abstract math, that book will catch her eye :-). Because of the way it is build and its many approaches to the subject, you can basically read it before highschool or as a math graduate and get something out of it.

Also there are plenty of videos from eg. introductory courses at MIT on youtube. Depending a bit on the subject, it does not have to go over her head; i would personally recommend something like combinatorics or introduction or set theory and formal logic.