Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Concepts of Modern Mathematics

4/5 ( ratings)

Some years ago, "new math" took the country's classrooms by storm. Based on the abstract, general style of mathematical exposition favored by research mathematicians, its goal was to teach students not just to manipulate numbers and formulas, but to grasp the underlying mathematical concepts. The result, at least at first, was a great deal of confusion among teachers, students, and parents. Since then, the negative aspects of "new math" have been eliminated and its positive elements assimilated into classroom instruction.
In this charming volume, a noted English mathematician uses humor and anecdote to illuminate the concepts underlying "new math": groups, sets, subsets, topology, Boolean algebra, and more. According to Professor Stewart, an understanding of these concepts offers the best route to grasping the true nature of mathematics, in particular the power, beauty, and utility of pure mathematics. No advanced mathematical background is needed to follow the author's lucid and thought-provoking discussions of such topics as functions, symmetry, axiomatics, counting, topology, hyperspace, linear algebra, real analysis, probability, computers, applications of modern mathematics, and much more.
By the time readers have finished this book, they'll have a much clearer grasp of how modern mathematicians look at figures, functions, and formulas and how a firm grasp of the ideas underlying "new math" leads toward a genuine comprehension of the nature of mathematics itself.

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Dover Publications

Release: February 01, 1995

ISBN: 0486284247

ISBN 13: 9780486284248

Concepts of Modern Mathematics

4/5 ( ratings)

Some years ago, "new math" took the country's classrooms by storm. Based on the abstract, general style of mathematical exposition favored by research mathematicians, its goal was to teach students not just to manipulate numbers and formulas, but to grasp the underlying mathematical concepts. The result, at least at first, was a great deal of confusion among teachers, students, and parents. Since then, the negative aspects of "new math" have been eliminated and its positive elements assimilated into classroom instruction.
In this charming volume, a noted English mathematician uses humor and anecdote to illuminate the concepts underlying "new math": groups, sets, subsets, topology, Boolean algebra, and more. According to Professor Stewart, an understanding of these concepts offers the best route to grasping the true nature of mathematics, in particular the power, beauty, and utility of pure mathematics. No advanced mathematical background is needed to follow the author's lucid and thought-provoking discussions of such topics as functions, symmetry, axiomatics, counting, topology, hyperspace, linear algebra, real analysis, probability, computers, applications of modern mathematics, and much more.
By the time readers have finished this book, they'll have a much clearer grasp of how modern mathematicians look at figures, functions, and formulas and how a firm grasp of the ideas underlying "new math" leads toward a genuine comprehension of the nature of mathematics itself.

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Dover Publications

Release: February 01, 1995

ISBN: 0486284247

ISBN 13: 9780486284248

More books from Ian Stewart

The Globe (The Science of Discworld, #2)

3.9/5 ( ratings)

What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Seeing Further: Ideas, Endeavours, Discoveries and Disputes — The Story of Science Through 350 Years of the Royal Society

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Flatterland: Like Flatland Only More So

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos

Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality Of Mathematics

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Professor Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Taming the Infinite: The Story of Mathematics from the First Numbers to Chaos Theory

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Mathematics of Life

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Magical Maze

3.7/5 ( ratings)

In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Letters to a Young Mathematician

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?

3.8/5 ( ratings)

100 Things to Do Before You Die (Plus a Few to Do Afterwards)

3.2/5 ( ratings)

The Great Mathematical Problems

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Algebraic Number Theory and Fermat's Last Theorem

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Calculating the Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils the Universe

Cogwheels of the Mind: The Story of Venn Diagrams

3.3/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?