Book Description

Reviews (6)

If You Hate Math, This May Be The Book For You
I think this book has something for just about everyone. It's a great read, and it's not dumbed down.

Numbers for Everyone!
Not since the great Indian mathematician Srinivasi Ramanujan has anyone gotten so involved in the personality of numbers to the extent as which Bryan Bunch has, and the reader is far better off for it. The classic story about Ramanujan and the personality of numbers is the tale about the number 1729. When he was ill in a hospital in England he was paid a visit by his friend and colleague G. H. Hardy, who had been given a ride in a taxicab bearing that number. Upon greeting Ramanujan, Hardy remarked that 1729 seemed like an exceedingly dull number and he hoped that this would not be taken as a bad omen. Ramanujan immediately answered: "No, no, my friend, on the contrary; it is a very interesting number. It is the smallest number that can be formed by adding two cubes together in two different ways!"

Such is the involvement of author Bryan Bunch with the personaliy of numbers. His tales of whole numbers from one to googolplex, fractions, algebraic, transcendental and imaginary numbers is sure to entertain and inform any reader with an interest in the world of numbers. His work is such that there is no such thing as an uninteresting number. To prove that there can be no such thing as an uninteresting number, consder the following: 'One' is interesting because it is considered neither prime nor composite; 'two' is ineresting because it is the only even prime number; 'three' is the smallest odd prime number; 'four' is the smallest even number to be a square; 'five'is a Fermat prime; 'six' is the smallest perfect number;...until the first 'uninteresting' number is reached. The fact that it is the first uninteresting number immediately makes it interesting!

Despite a few minor errors and the November 14 discovery of the primality of 2^13446917-1 (replacing 2^6972593-1 as the largest known prime number), I still believe that this book would be of great interest to any reader with an interest in numbers.

1729 = 1^3 + 12^3 = 9^3 + 10^3, in case you are interested in the Ramanujan story.

It all adds up to great fun
Just under 400 pages this gem of a book is packed with mathematical wonders. As the introduction notes "The intent of this field guide is to aid the reader in indentifying numbers in their native habitats.......the experienced numberwatcher learns to find the hidden secrets of numbers, to clasify a number instantly, and to use number relationships to enhance the enjoyment of mathematics as well as to solve problems."

And wisely the author notes that often all it takes to be a good number watcher is simply alterness and a basic awareness of the numbers in our lives. And this is so true. Since as the author continues to share, people who see numbers as a game, often are very quick to catch an error on a sales slip, checkbook, bank statement etc.

I loved the numbers games and trivia the author used that both reminded me of the trivia questions we all had in school but the math games our family played and plays while on various trips.

Like the question of the mountain bike which costs $900 including tax and interest. The buyers first payment is 25% of the cost and she pays the remainder of the costs in 15 equal monthly payments. How many dollars is one monthly payment?

The Chapters are equally interesting in their Titles. Like GENUS natural (counting numbers) Genera Integral and Rational (Signed numbers and fractions) Genus Real (Number-Line numbers) Genus Complex (all inclusive numbers) Kingdom infinity etc.

I wish my keyboard was more complex because I could tease you with other teasers he has, but if you have kids or you yourself love numbers buy this book and I promise you that you will be picking it up because it is so full of fun facts and teasers that it is like a good potato chip, you can't just read and try to figure out just one. And if math scares the willies out of you, but the book and learn to have fun with numbers.

The answer is $45

Math patterns and relationships are the focus
Kingdom of Infinite Number reads like a field guide in providing an in-depth examination of individual numbers and the properties which make them unique. Math patterns and relationships are the focus of a title which profiles dozens of numbers and surveys their 'personalities' and unique characteristics.

Fascinating for math-phobes
As someone who struggled with math all through grade school, college and grad school, but who somehow still finds numbers fascinating, I found this a great read. I learned more about mathematics and how it is relevant to just about every aspect of life than I ever learned from a "teacher". In the innocence of my educated ignorance I enjoyed the book. Alas, had I known of all the egregious errors found by another reviewer, I'm sure I would have kept reading it so I could carp about it. Let's just hope I don't pass on this new misinformation to my children. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best math book
Scott gifford is a wonderful teacher. Knowing him personly (my 5th and 6th grade teacher) I would like to say this is one of his creative ides. it started out as just a book to help us in math. now children all over the world can enjoy scott gifford! ... Read more

Book Description

Success in the electronics field requires a substantial background in mathematics.This updated book is written to provide beginning students with these needed skills.Practical, easy-to-understand problems help prepare students for the types of problems that professional electronic technicians face everyday.As part of the successful Practical Problems in Mathematics series, this fourth edition features expanded coverage of scientific notation, increased problems to be solved using a calculator, additional information on RLC circuits, and a new unit on simultaneous equations that includes coverage of Kirchoffs Law. ... Read more

Book Description

Examines various attempts to prove Euclid’s parallel postulate—by the Greeks, Arabs and Renaissance mathematicians. Ranging through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, it considers forerunners and founders such as Saccheri, Lambert, Legendre, W. Bolyai, Gauss, Schweikart, Taurinus, J. Bolyai and Lobachewsky.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

A very old classic
In Einstein's day this might have been a very good read! It is very well written. It is like reading a Spanish concurrent to Russell. A little reading finds it is a translation of a 1912 text. With general Relativity being a product of the understanding of the velocity based non Euclidean geometry of Lorentz who based his work on Poincare who based his work on Klein who based his work on... you see that history is important in an axiomatic development like this has been! But for a modern student of geometry, this book is much like buying a copy of Euclid's book on geometry: a reference that might help with understanding, but is so far out of date that it can be very little help in current problem! ... Read more

Book Description

An innovative supplement to traditional SAT Math test prep.Traditional SAT* math preparation materials & courses emphasize: 1) math concept review 2) practice exams 3) guestimation and 4) general strategies.Our book uniquely SUPPLEMENTS these 4 approaches with 34 specific math strategies & shortcuts to specific SAT* math problem types. (100pg. Book)

Highlights of this Book:
---34 specific SAT* math shortcuts & strategies
---Step-by-step examples
---Answers to all exercises
---Extensive glossary and index
---Concise summary of geometry formulas and concepts
---Easy to understand explanations ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Mostly Common Sense!
I purchased this book to help me prepare for the SAT I. I have always been good in school math classes, but the SAT I promotes speed and guessing over meticulous work, so I decided to give this book a try, as I was constantly running out of time on practice exams. Much to my dismay, most of the "shortcuts" found in this book are common sense to most 11th graders, and nearly anyone who has taken elementary high school math. I did not find any of the shortcuts to be helpful.

If you are a 500-550 math student, then this may be the book for you. For anyone aiming for a 650-700 or higher, this book is worthless. Nearly all of the shortcuts found in this book are also found in any decent SAT prep book, such as Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT I. Barron's provides more tactics, more (and better) practice problems, and costs about the same.

If you think there are any shortcuts in this book that are worth the price, you will be severely dissapointed.

This book is a winner!
To help my nephew prepare for the SAT, I bought several products: Math Shortcuts to Ace the SAT by Achievement Publishing, Cracking the SAT by Princeton Review, Kaplan's SAT Online training program (by far, the most expensive), and last-year's Kaplan SAT CD software. The best products by far were Cracking the SAT (Princeton Review) and Math Shortcuts to Ace the SAT.

Math Shortcuts to Ace the SAT is a short, quick read of 34 tips with related examples. (By the way, don't take the title LITERALLY. You probably won't "ace" the SAT. It's a common practice to tout a book by giving it an ambitious title.)

I didn't care for Kaplan's math format at all. Cracking the SAT (Princeton Review) was easier to understand and gave clearer tips to crack the hard problems, but Math Shortcuts... was easiest of all to learn. It's barely 100 pages, far less intimidating than the other books. I was able to read it and do all the examples in two evening sessions.

I took a sample SAT myself and scored in the low to mid 600s in math and verbal, but I'd didn't have a clue how to solve some of the math questions. (By the way, "Cracking the SAT" (Princeton Review) explains why the harder questions are things you'll never see in high school math classes.) After reading Math Shortcuts, I retested on the last five of twenty-five questions on two sample math sections to see how I improved.

As you know, the last questions are always the hardest. On these 10 hardest questions, before reading Math Shortcuts, I got 3 correct, 3 wrong, and 4 that I didn't attempt. After reading Math Shortcuts, I got 10 correct. I doubt that I could get a perfect score consistently, but the book obviously helped me. Since there are three math sections (not just two), my math score would probably have improved by over 100 points. (However, I took a lot of math in college and use it at work, so my results might not reflect that of the typical high school student.)

My nephew confirmed that he liked Math Shortcuts to Ace the Sat best of all. After studying the book, he took a sample SAT and increased his math score 90 points.

He found Kaplan's SAT online to be the least useful of all.

In summary, I'd highly recommend Math Shortcuts to Ace the SAT by Achievement Publishing to improve SAT math scores. For verbal and overall study, I'd recommend Cracking the SAT by Princeton Review. It does a good job of explaining how and when to guess and how the SAT is scored. Its explanations of how crack analogies was clearer than Kaplan. Its grouping of common SAT vocabulary words into common categories was far superior to Kaplain's memorization approach.

One final warning to parents. Don't expect your kids to do well on the SAT because they are good students. The SAT doesn't measure that. Get them some good study resources a few months before the test; otherwise, your student will be handicapped when he/she takes the SAT compared to students who have used good resources.

Terrible book
This book offered 34 "shortcuts," most of which are common sense. After reading this book, I took a practice test, only to find that it improved my score by 20 points (from 670-690). If you are scoring around a 500 or a 600 in the math section, then this book is for you, It my boost you score by a hundred points. But otherwise, this book will not help you. It certainly does not help the reader to "ace" the Math section (Waste of time and money). I reccomend some intensive preperation books such as Barrons.

It is amazing
If i had to use one word to describe this book it would be "amazing." Undeniably the BEST book I have ever come across. I saw A LOT of the tricks in this book being used in Kaplan and Princeton! I LOVED IT! It raised my score over 200 points. I would definately recommend this to anyone shooting for a 750 or up....

Great Help for SAT
This is a very well understood and clearly written book. It helped me greatly for the SAT and it will definetely help you. I give it a 5 star rating. And it also has a great price tag! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This is the student workbook.
Although this is an outstanding series, I thought I was ordering the teachers version of this book. This is the student workbook. It is still a great series though. ... Read more

Book Description

As the best seller in its field, Precalculus Functions and Graphs: A Graphing Approach, is the choice for precalculus courses that require students to use graphing technology, begin with a faster paced algebra review, and introduce trigonometry first with a unit circle approach, then the right triangle. The Third Edition offers both instructors and students a more solid, comprehensive, and flexible program than ever before.

For a complete listing of features, see Larson/Hostetler/Edwards, College Algebra: A Graphing Approach, 3/e.

Reviews (1)

Good book to learn with
This is a very good book. It teaches the materal very well and the formulas and defintions are easy to find. ... Read more

Book Description

most-asked questions deal with tax problems, interest and discount, time-payment, etc. 809 problems, answers. "...more than just a refresher...contains a great number of items that are not just reminders but entirely new ideas..."—Bookmarks.
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Reviews (1)

Memory jogging review
Have you ever blanked out when someone asked you a simple arithmetic question? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

This book is aimed at adults who have forgotten much of the basic arithmetic taught in school. It starts with the basics: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and then ranges over a variety of topics (business and financial calculations, percentages, charts, angle measurements, logarithms, mixtures and solutions, averages, etc.).

It contains over 800 problems, easy-to-follow questions and answers in a question and answer style.

If you are returning to school, or have school aged children (and need to help with homework) this book can help to jog your memory. ... Read more

Book Description

Using technology as a tool for solving problems, this unique book presents the practical, day-to-day applications of mathematical concepts by connecting them to real-world examples and reader's actual problems. The focus is on the entire process of problem-solving, including the formulation and validation of mathematical models.Approaches the problem-solving process from beginning to end, using actual situations readers' need to solve. Helps readers understand mathematical functions and models: identifying and validating assumptions of models, making ballpark estimates, verifying calculations, performing sensitivity analysis, and identifying an appropriate level of precision to reflect a reasonable margin of error. A valuable reference book for any professional who can use mathematical models to solve everyday business problems. ... Read more

Book Description

Mathematics can be fun for everyone, and this book shows it. It grew out of the author's popularisation of mathematics via live, call-inTV shows and widely published articles. The questions, comments, and even the answers here come largely from the callers and readers themselves, and so the book covers the kind of mathematical problems that people are interested in, not those that professional mathematicians, writers or even publishers think people should be interested in. The book makes no attempt to fit any mould. Although written by a research mathematician, it goes where the callers and readers have directed it, over a wide range of topics and levels. Everyone paging through it will be captured by something of interest, whether they consider themselves interested in mathematics or not. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fun problems submitted to a call-in show
Despite the math phobia that afflicts so much of the population, it is limited in extent. All but the most committed hater of mathematics understands how valuable it is and respects those who can use math. This book is a catalog of questions submitted to a call-in show, which is certainly one of the most unusual ways to solicit mathematics problems. The world seems to be overpopulated with call-in shows, some of which get downright weird. To many people, discussing personal problems over the airwaves is the preferred way to deal with them. This is clearly a case of a call-in show that adds something to society rather than airing some of the ills that afflict it.
The problems presented in the book are fascinating, in that they start with simple ideas concerning how the world works. My two favorites are "Do Airplanes Get Lighter as Passengers Eat Lunch?" and "Can a Computer Have Free Will?" These are the type of problems that kindle the interest of lay people. Interesting, sometimes profound questions where the answers require a bit of deep thought. Some of the best brain teaser problems with simple solutions that you will ever find are in this collection. I have used a few of them as test problems to try the patience of my students.
It is gratifying to see such an endeavor succeed. Mathematics has so much to offer our society, but like artisans throughout history it is truly the society in general that supports the practitioners. Programs like this convince us all that, despite the occasional spouting of math phobia, our society does indeed respect mathematics as a pillar of human achievement. ... Read more

Book Description

An excellent resource for the professional in the food service industry in any capacity; whether it be managerial or prep work. ... Read more