Reviews (3)

I couldn't ask for a better book!!!
I bought the second edition of this book several years ago when our company (USWest) was closing departments and we knew we would have to start testing for job title changes. It was one of the most helpful purchases I have ever made! I retired, and now I'm going into real estate. Naturally the real estate classes (and the state test) have lots of math and math problems. As they say...what you don't use you lose!!! There were several of us in the classes who were having a difficult time with the math problems and formulas. This book was once again a life saver. At first glance one would think it's too simple...more for children than adults, but it isn't. Mr. Williams makes math super simple for any age!!!

The first few chapters are basic math...addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, Roman numerals, etc.

Chapters 6-8 are fractions...changing improper to mixed numbers...subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions...unlike denominators, etc.

Chapters 10-13 cover decimals...comparing, rounding off, adding, subtracting, multiplying mixed decimals.

Chapter 14 covers percents...changing percents to decimals, to fractions, and finding the percent of a number.

Chapter 15 covers measurement.

There are pre-tests to see if you need to study the chapter, word problems, practice examples, and practice tests after every section.

I recommend this book for everyone...young people who find math difficult, as an invaluable aid for parents of school age children, for anyone who is making a career change and is faced with job testing, and for those...like myself...who have been out of school for years and need a brush up on math skills. The price is minimal!!!

Thank you, Edward Williams, for writing this book. Thank you for the difference it has made it my life!!!

Excellent--really superb
I am a 40+ year old M.D. who is relearning math to do some tutoring, and this book is really solid, well written. It clearly took a great deal of effort to make it so lucid and logically sequenced, beautifully sequenced with difficult concepts explained with simple explanations. I would definitely recommend it to just about anyone who needs to work on any or all of the following:

addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions--including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division thereof--decimals and percentages

I'm sure if I had encountered this book in high school i would have done better in math, and I plan to use it as a resource in my tutoring.

What a great book!
I think this is a great book because I was failing math in school so I decided to try to look for a book at amazon.com. Then I found Arithmetic the easy way.It really helped.In one month my grade went from a D to an A. I love this book and I know anyone who buys it will enjoy it to. ... Read more

Book Description

The arithmetic Riemann-Roch Theorem has been shown recently by Bismut-Gillet-Soul. The proof mixes algebra, arithmetic, and analysis. The purpose of this book is to give a concise introduction to the necessary techniques, and to present a simplified and extended version of the proof. It should enable mathematicians with a background in arithmetic algebraic geometry to understand some basic techniques in the rapidly evolving field of Arakelov-theory.

Reviews (1)

Deep but important
The Riemann-Roch theorem has come a long way since its origins in the work of Bernhard Riemann 154 years ago. Riemann was attempting to establish the existence of complex functions on multiply-connected surfaces with no boundary. A surface that is (2p + 1)-connected for a positive integer p can be represented as a 4p-sided polygon after making 2p cuts. Riemann showed using the Dirichlet principle that there are p linearly-independent functions defined inside this polygon that are everywhere holomorphic. The differentials of these functions are also holomorphic integrands. By specifying D points at which a function can have simple poles, and by constraining the functions to change only by a constant amount at the cuts, then Riemann showed that one can obtain functions with only simple poles and constant "jumps" by taking a sum of p linearly independent functions with no poles with functions of the form 1/z at one of the specified points and a constant term. Non-constant meromorphic functions thus exist when p + D + 1 - 2p >= 2, or D > p, which is now called the Riemann inequality. Hence there is a linear space of complex functions of dimension >= D + 1 - p, which contains non-constant functions when D + 1 - p > 1. Roch was Riemann's student and interpreted the quantity D + 1 - p as the dimension of the space of holomorphic integrands. If a function has D simple poles, and if there are Q linearly independent integrands that vanish at these poles, then the function depends on D - p + q + 1 arbitrary constants.

The work of Riemann and Roch is readily seen to be related to the genus of the surface, if viewed in the light of the polygon of 4p sides. The modern view of the Riemann-Roch theorem in fact is naturally viewed as a generalization of a formula for the Euler characteristic, the latter of which involves the genus of a Riemann surface. The "classical" Riemann-Roch theorem is stated in terms of divisors on a Riemann surface X of genus g and reads as r(-D) - i(D) = d(D) - g + 1, where D is a fixed divisor on the surface, r(-D) is the dimension of meromorphic functions of divisors >= -D on X, and i(D) is the dimension of the space of meromorphic 1-forms of divisors >= D on X. Many other statements have been given, one being in terms of holomorphic bundles defined by D over X, where one computes the Euler characteristic of the sheaf of germs of holomorphic sections of the bundle. Another is in the context of holomorphic bundles over nonsingular complex projective varieties, where the Euler characteristic of the sheaf of holomorphic sections of the bundle is given in terms of a formula involving the first Chern class of the variety. The Euler characteristic has of course also been computed in terms of the index of Dirac operators, and so it is not surprising to find that the Riemann-Roch theorem has an analytical formulation also.

This book proves a Riemann-Roch theorem for arithmetic varieties, and the author does so via the formalism of Dirac operators and consequently that of heat kernels. In the first lecture the reader will see the "classical" Riemann-Roch theorem in an even more general context then that mentioned above: that of smooth morphisms of regular schemes. Using familiar constructions involving the K-groups and Chow groups to make the calculations more manageable, the author proves the Riemann-Roch theorem for regular schemes by reducing it to the case for projective bundles. Flag schemes are used in the proof, and the strategy used here repeats itself in the proof of the arithmetic Riemann-Roch theorem. Throughout the book the author outlines the necessary background for the eventual proof of the arithmetic Riemann-Roch theorem. This includes a discussion of how to define Chern classes for arithmetic vector bundles, as well as the background in analysis via a discussion of heat kernels and Laplacians on Riemannian manifolds. The detailed discussion of analysis was done, according to the author, so as to avoid the methods of stochastic integration, which he felt might not be familiar to the average reader with a background in algebraic geometry. ... Read more

Book Description

This book contains over 100 challenging problems for pupils aged 11-15, taken from the hugely popular UK Junior Mathematical Olympiad.There are also sixty additional problems in a similar style.The second section of the book consists of detailed comments and hints, while the third section gives outline solutions. These high quality, more challenging problems will provide an excellent and invaluable resource for all mathematics teachers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fun problems, but not easy!
These math problems are ones that were given in competitions in the UK to adolescents. There is always an "A" part and a "B" part, but the 2nd part is MUCH harder! A good part of the book is that they give hints for if you get stuck. A good book for someone who actually wants to do math and not just read about it. ... Read more

Book Description

Almost all adults suffer a little math anxiety, especially when it comes to everyday problems they think they should be able to figure out in their heads. Want to figure the six percent sales tax on a $34.50 item? A 15 percent tip for a $13.75 check? The carpeting needed for a 121/2-by-17-foot room? No one learns how to do these mental calculations in school, where the emphasis is on paper-and-pencil techniques. With no math background required and no long list of rules to memorize, this book teaches average adults how to simplify their math problems, provides ample real-life practice problems and solutions, and gives grown-ups the necessary background in basic arithmetic to handle everyday problems quickly. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One of my all time favorite books
This book is a great way for people to learn how to do simple math problems (arithmetic operations) in their heads. Unlike some other books in the same genre that simply give you gimmicks without explaining how or why they work, W. J. Howard offers tricks that have a solid basis in mathematical logic and explains the rationale. Another problem that many other mental math books have is that they require you to memorize a lot of rules that aren't easily relatable to common sense. Dr. Howard's book, however, only gives you a few rules which are easier to remember because they have a logical basis.

Even if you aren't interested in mental math, this book is a great refresher for those who have forgotten how to do arithmetic without a calculator. So toss out your calculators, sharpen your pencils, and buy this book. You won't regret it. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume represents the first philosophically sound discussion of the concept of number in Western civilization. (Mathematics) ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Frege, You're Not Supposed To Have...
*The Foundations of Arithmetic*, one of the most durable works of philosophy of mathematics ever produced, is something of a curiosity as presented by J.L. Austin (who translated the work for the use of an Oxford undergraduate course); and perhaps Frege's platonism got the best of Austin, and this work is really just as , well, Kantian as it appears, "a good sight" more Kantian than "standard" Frege is typically allowed to be. Frege's definition of number in terms of equipollence (one-one correspondence of sets) is legendary: that is to say, it is traditionally understood to do a great deal more work than the "thin" version allowed by mathematical logic as reconstructed to avoid Russell's paradox.

But here Frege's work-up of the concept for a general readership is so "genteel" as to suggest that this may not in fact be the case, and that Frege actually partook more heavily of Neo-Kantian bromides than his *theory of arithmetic* suggests; to wit, that this theory was always intended to be situated within a general philosophy of mathematics obeying the strictures of reasoning involving Kantian "intuition" (as is typically said of Frege's last efforts in the field). As such, it would be unfortunate that we cannot effectively read this book (formerly available *en face*, and unfortunately much the worse for the original's omission) in conjunction with its contemporary geometrical counterpart: long out of print, rarely making its way into the philosophical Frege literature, and perhaps in all parts an *anticipatory* if "crochety" rebuke to Hilbertian formalism.

Perhaps Frege was to a certain extent wholly other than the mathematics of his time; perhaps we are not well-served by a Frege "out of time"; we certainly have one of the great prose stylists of English on hand here, and perhaps it would actually do to consider his aptitude for "gold" extraction here as a clue to puzzling out the rest of Frege -- a figure supremely unconcerned with sameness of meaning, and already owing a certain debt to those para-philosophical figures all his work is at cross-purposes with (the German '70s having been quite a time indeed). A great help to understanding number theory, a marvelous thing for a library to have.

Excellent work
His conclusion (p.99e) is that the laws of arithmetic are analytic judgements and consequently a priori.

Note that he is very consistently hard on Mill.

Some interesting quotes: p. 115e #106. "...number is neither a collection of things nor a property of such, yet at the same time is not a subjective product of mental processes either, we concluded that a statement of number asserts something objective of a concept.

... (p. 116e) We next laid down the fundamental principle that we must never try to define the meaning of a word in isolation, but only as it is used in the context of a proposition: only by adhering to this can we, as I believe, avoid a physical view of it.

#107. (p.117e) "A recognition statement must always have a sense."

great work
possibly one of the greatest works in history of philosophy and the founding book of 20th century analytic philosophy... I read it only once and a better appraisal will be coming shortly..I can say right away this is not simply a 'technical' work in philosophy of mathematics but a broad although short philosophical investigation in notions of truth, meaning and identity - although it expressly deals with defining numbers in purely logical terms. continental philosophers who read this work might change some of their negative ideas about where analytic philosophy is coming from.

A Must for Any Philosopher of Mathematics
This book written by Gottlob Frege is one of the most influential books of the 20th century philosophy of mathematics. In here Frege establishes the nature of arithmetics as founded in logic, which is his logicist proposal. For that, he refutes the assertion that logic as such is founded on psychology.

Sometimes he distorts a little bit what others say about logic, so he argues against those thinkers more effectively. In here he establishes the anti-psycology difference between concept and object; though he has not made a difference yet between sense and reference. He also refers to a principle called the contextual principle, in which the word makes reference to something depending on the context. Afterwards after he wrote the book, he would reject this principle, because of his doctrine of sense and reference: the sense of the words determine the sense of the sentence; and the reference of the words determine the reference of the sentence.

This is a great philosophical work, and I would suggest it to anyone who is starting to study Analytic philosophy (philosophy of mathematics, logic and language), and also those who want to consider the platonist proposal. ... Read more

Book Description

This book discusses the estimation, simulation, and interpretation of models with multiple outcomes, when these outcomes are either ordered or unordered, against the backdrop of examples relating to socioeconomic inequality.  The book includes exposition of the important distinction between odds-ratios and risk-ratios, logit versus probit (and, vice-versa) as well as a step-by-step explanation of the practical computing procedures that underpin the analysis.  

Book Description

Lets Make a Deal!

Mike and his little brother, Andy, are headed for the Dinosaur Card Trading Fair. They're ready to wheel and deal. It's, 4 Stegosaurus for 1 Triceratops, and 2 Triceratops for 1 Allosaurus. But can they get what they really want: the tremendous, gigantic, ferocious, Tyrannosaurus rex?

The math concept of equivalency -- understanding when values are equal -- is introduced in this fast-paced story as two brothers try to beat the clock and make the ultimate trade.

Book Description

This is a critical examination of the astonishing progress made in the philosophical study of the properties of the natural numbers from the 1880s to the 1930s. Reassessing the brilliant innovations of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, and others, which transformed philosophy as well as our understanding of mathematics, Michael Potter places arithmetic at the interface between experience, language, thought, and the world. ... Read more

Book Description

In an artful interweaving of mathematics and literature, this series of lively mathematics activities jumps off from one of the well-known "Frog and Toad" stories, "The Lost Button."The story leads to free exploration of buttons, then sorting and classifying and a "Guess the Sort" game.Students design their own buttons and use a graphing grid to organize data.Students also "guesstimate" the number of small plastic frogs in a jar and the number of lima beans in a handful to develop the valuable life skill of estimating.A "Frog Pond" board game helps students develop strategic-thinking skills. The "Hop to the Pond Game" is an experiment in probability and statistics.In the newly revised guide, all grade levels play the fair version of "Hop to the Pond" with six frogs.Then grades 13 play the unfair version with 12 frogs.Emphasis throughout is on student cooperation.The California Math Council has named Frog Math as a recommended replacement unit. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not a "dud" lesson in the book!
The time invested in set-up and collecting materials for lessons from this text is well spent.The lessons are clearly presented, appropriate, and engaging, with many extension ideas included.The lessons were effective in primary and are adaptable for intermediate.To quote a friend who passed the lessons on to me: "There isn't a dud lesson in the book."She is right! Nicely done, J. Kopp! ... Read more

Book Description

This book is an introduction into modern cardinal arithmetic in the frame of the axioms of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory together with the axiom of choice. A first part describes the classical theory developed by Bernstein, Cantor, Hausdorff, König and Tarski between 1870 and 1930. Next, the development in the seventies led by Galvin, Hajnal and Silver is characterized. The third part presents the fundamental investigations in pcf theory which have been worked out by Shelah to answer the questions left open in the seventies. This text is the first self-contained introduction to cardinal arithmetic which also includes pcf theory. It is aimed at undergraduates, and also at postgraduate students and researchers who want to broaden their knowledge of cardinal arithmetic. It gives a relatively complete survey of results provable in ZFC. ... Read more

Book Description

Helping students grasp the "why" of algebra through patient explanations, Hirsch and Goodman gradually build students' confidence without sacrificing rigor. To help students move beyond the "how" of algebra (computational proficiency) to the "why" (conceptual understanding), the authors introduce topics at an elementary level and return to them at increasing levels of complexity. Their gradual introduction of concepts, rules, and definitions through a wealth of illustrative examples-both numerical and algebraic-helps students compare and contrast related ideas and understand the sometimes-subtle distinctions among a wide variety of situations. This author team carefully prepares students to succeed in higher level mathematics. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good examples
This book has good examples to work off of for algebra.

la_books
Very good serves and fast to. Book looks like new!! ... Read more

Book Description

A particularly useful reference for those in math, science, engineering, and other technical fields.Includes the most-frequently used formulas, tables, transforms, functions, and graphs needed as tools in solving problems.The entire field of special functions is also covered.A large amount of scientific data used by scientists and engineers is also contained in this handbook. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

It meets a need
It does what it promises: deliver the usual tables that meet basic mathematical needs. Trig, logs, exponents, and some miscellany (a little quaint in the era of calculators). I got it as a home reference for integrals, and it's good enough to get me in the right direction. Given it's intended range, I fault it only for weakness in stats and probability.

Hey, the price is right. It's nothing special, but not all of my needs are special. For basic math stuff, this may be the book to get if you can't afford the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

too many typos
There are so many typos and errors in the book that I can no longer trust anything I look up in this book. I thought it deserved two stars just for the price.

Get CRC or Jeffrey's instead
No offense but this is probably the most useless book I ever bought.

I own CRC and Jeffrey's reference books and have used them so much the binding is disintergrating. In the meantime Ogden and Fogiel's book hasn't moved from my shelf. It's poorly indexed, and the formulas are often ill-phrased.

Please, if you are a scientist or an engineer, don't buy this book. For the future, for the children, get a better reference book

A friendly monster
It has 1011 pages, not including index, and it runs all the way from algebra (special products, partial fractions, matrices), to elementary analysis, geometry, trig, logarithms, hyperbolics, series, derivatives, integrals, differential equations, special functions, and more than 300 pages dedicated to applied science data: physiscs, chemistry, biology. One of the things I really liked about this book is that it has a table with all the prime numbers from 1 to 100,000. All you have to do is look for the suspect! You forgot an obscure solid volume formula? It's here. Dealing with differential equations? They are listed here by kind (Exact, Bernoulli's, Reducible, etc), faced with their method of solution. I am not an engineering major, but this was too much of a temptation. Not everything is here, of course: your brain is still where you left it, but this handbook is a very good ally.

A professional engineer's MUST have!!!
This is one of the best reference books in my library. It's a thick one, but I can't imagine any project without taking "Big Red" with me. All those formulas and relations one usually ends up rummaging through old college texts for and a handy springboard for functions one may not have encountered before. For college students this book is a MUST. Especially in those upper division courses (can you say "fourier transform"? ). Definitely worth the investment. ... Read more

Book Description

Problem-solving and computational skills, with special focus on the use of the Casio FX-260 calculator, understanding grids, and strategies for handling word problems.

Announcing the companion workbook series to the GED test series

Practice makes perfect with McGraw-Hill's updated GED Workbook series, which reflects the 2002 test guidelines. These workbooks provide invaluable hands-on experience for students as they tackle hundreds of GED format questions and check results against an answer key. Simulated test-taking situations boost not only content retention but also confidence for the big day. Ideal study guides for a student weak in a particular subject area or sitting for one GED test at a time, these activity books function as a companion to McGraw-Hill's GED Test titles and McGraw-Hill's GED.

Reviews (4)

gimme a break
If you want art buy an art book, if you want math history get Bell or Boyer (among others). But if you don't like to read and think math should be pretty pictures this book is for you.
Many retail stores carry this book so get it in your hands to decide whether you want it.

Great Historical Book about Mathematics
I really enjoyed the history and the art in this book! I was also glad the author chose to put a Chronology at the end of the book. After reading it, it dawned on me that there are no famous women mathematicians! Is that true!

I am going to be teaching 9th grade Algebra soon and am looking forward to sharing this book with my future students. I would like to find some of the art used in this book to display in my classroom. If there are any ideas as to where some can be found, please feel free to email me. Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

A Mathematics Book That Will Change Your Life!
Positional notation i.e Hindu(Arabic) is beautifully explained in this book like no other! The Photographs the artwork and the layout of the book make it even more readable. For anyone like myself that couldn't understand Mathematics at High School or University - primarily because your Teacher or Lecturer didn't understand it either should buy this book! It will open your eyes!

Great book, intriguing graphics, a gift for the curious
I bought this book while browsing at a bookstore. This is a great book about the history (and use of) numbers. What really stands out are the graphics. This is a full color book with lots and lots of historic documents, pictures, paintings, etc... revolving around numbers. Very interesting coverage of Mayan use of numbers. For example he shows all the various forms of the Mayan zero.

I've unfortunately ruined my copy of this book by underlining in it so heavily. Here's some sample copy:

"To India goes the credit for inventing the complete zero, with all the three functions of place notation, designation of quantity, and number. It first appears in manucscripts of the 5th century AD...." The author covers this topic of zero in about 2 pages of text... then goes on to show several beautiful pictures of the use of zero.

A following page covers infinity and it includes a full color picture of Plato debating Aristotle (Raphael fresco).

Did you know that the first zero was written in Babylon (before the 3rd century BC)? But, unfortunately they didn't use zero as a number itself... only as an unused digit. The Mayans sometime in the first 1000 years also developed a limited form of zero.

This is a most delightful book. I've used it to show children the beauty of numbers (oh... look at the abacus...). I've also learned more about our "numeric heritage" from this author. He's a professor of the history of science at Univ. of Paris. He's written other books along this line.

The book is one of a series called "Discovery" titles by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. I've not read any of the other titles. But by judging from their back flap listing... they probably are small, full color books having a low price with a scientific or historical bend.

This book is small enough to fit in your pants pocket if you force it (5" x 7" x 1/2"). This 175 page full color book is just the right size for lunch time reading. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for the mathematically curious.

John Dunbar ... Read more

Reviews (2)

discovery method
As a precalc tutor, I found I could read this book fairly well and follow the steps. However, the average (very bright) student has trouble learning the material from this book.

Often crucial steps are left out so a student has a hard time doing the same problem themselves.

Also the book tends to present only part of the topic and leave much of the real learning to doing the problems. The later problems in each section and many in the chapter review actually are where the real material is covered and students have no idea how to do them because it is not covered in the text. It seems to use the discovery method for teaching. Let the student figure it out, if he can. The treatment of trigonometry is particularly backwards. At the end of the section on oblique triangles, the students are asked to explain the various types of triangles and how to solve them (AAA, SAS, SSA, etc). Why in the world does the book not just teach this in the first place? I much prefer the Schaum guides to this textbook.

I do, however, like the application examples and application problems that are used - give math a real world feel. Many of them are rather hard to do, though, because the book doesn't explain how to do them.

Some poor examples and explaining
The book is supposed to be for beginners in PreCalculus, however, many of their examples assume that you have some calculus knowledge. Examples fail to explain the basic steps needed to achieve their results. Book could be good when used by a good teacher, but I recommend self tought students stay away from it, unless, of course, you already know calculus. ... Read more