5 comments about The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.

1. If you want to make a young budding girl scientist feel really bad about herself and teach her not to trust men who teach math, this is the perfect book. This author describes women as one-dimensional. The Taliban treated women horrendously but they didn't kick them out of the human race. Flatland basically kicks women out of the human race. This is NOT GIRL FRIENDLY. If you give this to a girl who likes math, there's a good chance she could decide she hates math after reading this.



2. With the Alice in Wonderland books, the late 1800s seem to have been the time for really creative mathemetical writing.
   
   Although not as frequently read, Flatland, the Edwin Abbott Abbott story of a little square coming to understanding that higher dimensions do indeed exist outside his world is a delightful read. For those seeking to understand what life is like in other dimensions, Flatland is very comprehensible with clear writing and simple, easy to understand illustrations that help drive home Abbott's points.
   
   Originally written with many sly references to the then existing state of British culture, Abbott's invitation to try and understand higher dimensions was also an invitation to society of his time to try to re think its views on a myriad of issues...including its openness to women in education.
   
   In this way, Abbott converted viewing higher dimensions into both a mathematical and social challenge...points Stewart was sensitive to in his annotations and his own homage, Flatterland.
   
   Although other editions of this work exist, the annotated Flatland is the one to buy both because of its faithful reproduction of the original and its thought provoking and helpful footnotes that give the work broader meaning.



3. A wonderful little fantasy tale that explains mathematical concepts of dimensions from the point of view of a 2-dimensional world. It is a fun way to introduce others (notably children) to the wonder of mathematics and the joy of discovery.



4. I happened to come across this book on my father's book shelf, when I was sick and had to miss school, long time ago. Fascinating book! It has opened me a door to the world that I have been too familiar with, but had never visited before.
   And now I would like my kids to have the same wonderful experience of going through the Flatland. However it was not easy to find it again - I forgot the name of the book, as well as the name of the author. In addition, when I read it first it was in russian translation. But here it is - Flatland, Flatlandia. Hooray!!!



5. For over a hundred years Edwin Abbott's ANNOTATED FLATLAND has attracted readers interested in both math and satires on Victorian society. This annotated version introduces readers to Flatland, where men are polygons and females are lines, and adds commentary connecting the original text with history, science and culture. The annotated version makes for a contemporary survey that science and general-interest collections alike will find compelling.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about Multiple Regression : A Primer (Undergraduate Research Methods & Statistics in the Social Sciences).

1. This book was required for a graduate Sociology class in Survey Analysis. I began studying statistics the previous quarter and had a terrible time. The books were dry and uninteresting. This one is written in almost conversational English with plenty of examples and excellent explanations. The writing is clear and easy to follow. I read one or two chapters in a sitting with no problem (my eyes didn't glaze over and I didn't fall asleep.)
   
   If you've ever used "The Complete Idiot's Guide to... " or "... for Dummies" series then you have some idea what this book is like; not that it's dumbed down at all, but that it's written in "plain English" that's easy to follow and (after my last class) literally a pleasure to read. I've been reading the book for 3 days and I am grasping concepts that I could not get in 10 weeks of studying with other texts.
   
   Roughly speaking, the first half introduces the reader to the practice and application of regressions. The second half explains more of the technical details (the arithmetic, assumptions, etc.) The final chapters deal with some of the pitfalls and other considerations involved in using regressions (multi-collinearity, etc.) It's all been very helpful. I highly recommend this book to students of statistics and to instructors in need of texts for their courses.



2. For social scientists, this book is so full of practical information about what to look out for in regression, and it's a well written, easy reading style...highly recommended. It's orientation is toward application including brief instructions for SPSS procedures. Another benefit is 5 different examples of how infomation is typically presented in social sciences journals including what are typical levels of sig. and explained variation. Note -- if you're looking for a lot of detailed underlying math or theory, this probably isn't your book.



3. This starts with the very basics. What is correlation? What is regression? By the time it gets to multiple regression it is nearly over. ALL to its credit. It is eminently readable. It is non-technical and clear. It doesn't have any software step by step, but that is not the point of the book. Too basic for some, it is perfect for the novice. I benefited mostly from inspiration on how best to explain regression to others. Brief and relatively inexpensive, probably worth having on hand even if you are not a novice.



4. This book positions itself as a gentler introduction to multiple regression which is both good and bad. The prose makes it easy to read, but in the end this book should have used formatting that better outlines the step-by-step approach needed in multiple regression problems. I swear I'm not kidding here; they do examples where they insert math steps in the middle of sentences in the middle of paragraphs. That doesn't help anyone. Put the examples in clearly outlined boxes like a "real" textbook and outline the steps. The author has written a really decent book - but in the next edition he shouldn't be shy about giving readers enough step-by-step outlines to try some problems. He seems to back off of that for fear of seeming too "technical." Don't worry about it - readers know how to skip ahead. We've been doing it for years.



5. This is hands-down the most helpful book I have come across in my graduate studies on regression. It's written in non-technical language and is very clearly organized. The book is a great introduction to the mechanics of regression-I find myself going back to it time and again when I am need a refresher or am having a problem in my analyses and need some basic help. Highly recommended for social science grad students.

4 comments about Logic For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science)).

1. If a book is informative and well-written, then it is a good book. In the world of logic, if the antecedent ("if a book is informative and well-written") is true, then the consequent ("then it is a good book") must also be true. Furthermore, for an "and" statement to be true, both of its components (informative, well-written) must individually be true. So, is Logic for Dummies by Mark Zegarelli a good book?
   
   It is informative. After a brief overview of logic (including its history), Zegarelli gets into the meat of logic, with a particular focus on sentential and quantifier logic. Of course, these terms mean little to the novice in logic, but he gives plenty of explanation as to what both are. Both are considered forms of classical logic and reduce statements to what are essentially formulas of letters and symbols. In a way, it's like mathematics in its approach to proofs. It's not always easy to breeze through, but with patience, it all adds up. Beyond classical logic, Zegarelli also gives the reader a brief introduction into other, sometimes more exotic, forms of logic.
   
   It is well-written. This means two things. First, Zegarelli is able to convey his information in an understandable fashion. That is not to say it is always easy to understand at first glance, but (as stated before), if you carefully follow his explanation, it makes sense. Second, it is readable. It is possible to be both informative and clear and still read dryly; Zegarelli writes with a light, occasionally humorous, tone that makes the reading much more enjoyable.
   
   So logically, this is a good book, as the "if" part is true. Is it a great book? Not quite, which is why I'm rating it four stars and not five. Despite its generally being informative and well-written, it lacks the quality of excellence. There are times when Zegarelli could illustrate his topics better, and there are some topics (such as paradoxes and logical fallacies) that he could delve into deeper. But even if not perfect, this serves as a good introduction to the subject (as "Dummies" books often do), so if you want to learn more about logic, this book is a good place to start.



2. I have schlepped through the Hodges and Tarski books to teach myself basic symbolic logic, as well as the Schaum's guide for practice problems.
   
   Why, I ask myself. Probably because I dropped college logic because I found it too confusing and the professor an obtuse windbag. Because of this act of cowardice, I have tried to make amends by learning on my own in my spare time. I also found that I enjoyed it, but it was slow-going.
   
   While far from perfect, this is the BEST way to learn solid fundamentals in logic, I only wish it were available years ago. I would have saved lots of time and frustration.



3. This book is a great introduction to Logic for anyone who has ever been intimidated by Math or by those Logic books written without verbs and nouns. Explanations are in clear English. Anyone reading it should have a good handle on the subject matter when finished. For those interested in abstruse proofs, go get a Calculus book by Addison-Wesley.



4. While I thought this book was laid-out well and served as a good introduction, I was disappointed to see such a large number of errors in the book. It made me wonder if anyone had bothered to proof-read it at all. These mistakes can potentially be severely misleading to the reader unless you are alert and recognize what Zegarelli meant to say.
   
   For example, he clearly lays out in his truth table that value for the biconditional, F <--> T is F. Yet two pages later, there is an error that states that F <--> T is T. In another spot, a parentheses is omitted which completely alters the value of the statement. In another, the statement he is evaluating contains a biconditional <--> but the sentence below the statement refers to an &-operator that isn't even in the statement! And then there's this one: he states, "But when P is true and Q is false, the statement is false", when in actuality he has completely mixed up the truth values of P and Q according to his own truth table. Needless to say, unless you already have a background in logic or are adept enough to pick up on these errors, the reader can easily be confused by these apparent contradictions.
   
   Potential buyers should also be aware that there are a large number of references to pop-culture such as Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Lopez, and Hell's Kitchen. I'm sure Zegarelli uses these as a poor attempt at humor and to try to make readers relate to the subject-matter, but his assumptions about the knowledge and interests of his audience may not necessarily be applicable to everyone.
   
   Despite these misgivings, the book does give a good basic refresher to the material at hand.

5 comments about Table of Integrals, Series, and Products, Seventh Edition.

1. My copy of this book is the 4th edition, 1965. I still vividly
   remember going to a bookstore in Berkeley, CA in 1971 and buying this
   book for $10 (I also bought the "Feynman Lectures in Physics" on this
   trip for $7.45 per volume). I also remember eating lunch at an
   outdoor restaurant in Berkeley and having a fantastic view of the San
   Francisco Bay Area, as it was an absolutely clear day. As a piece of
   useless trivia, I had a liverwurst sandwich on a dark pumpernickel;
   this is the first time I ever had liverwurst and fell in love with it!
   
   This book is compendium of mostly integrals. What made it stand out
   back then was its organization, making it relatively easy to look
   up a particular integral. Most of the formulas come with a reference
   to where the formula came from, should one desire to research things
   a bit more. While it's not a panacea for dealing with all integrals,
   you're likely to find something in here to aid in attacking most
   problems.
   
   Before using any of these integrals in an important problem, I'd
   recommend you verify the formula first. Fortunately, this isn't
   hard to do numerically with modern scripting languages like python,
   accompanied by something like scipy, or a computer algebra system
   such as Mathematica or Maple.



2. After a 7 year wait, the 7th Edition of Gradshteyn & Ryzhik has finally been released! Other reviews speak to the tremendous utility of this classic. It is worth noting that the latest edition now INCLUDES a fully-searchable CD-ROM version of the book. However, I did notice a bug when using this on Windows XP SP2 with FireFox 2.0.0.2. (The CD-ROM is optimized for the Netscape browser and CANNOT be used with Internet Explorer.) Although I am able to click on the "Contents" button and navigate through the sections; and although I am able to go back to the title page by clicking on "Home"; when I click on the "Book Contents" button in the middle, FireFox freezes on me and I have to terminate the browser process.



3. Doesn't replace every other reference--but is pretty darn complete. I love that this 7th edition comes with the CD containing the complete searchable text for no extra charge.



4. I have the book version of this title and it is a great and incredibly useful book so I decided to buy the CD version to have it always available on my laptop and desktop. You can imagine my surprise and disappointment when I discovered that the software included in the CD is not compatible with Linux! This CD uses an obsolete piece of software (the install instruction for Windows refer to Windows 95!) that has no equivalent (up to my knowledge) in the Linux environment.
   
   I wrote to the Costumer Service of AP but got no answer.
   
   Hopefully they will get to their sense and do a decent version 2 of this product. By now it is pure junk.



5. Essential book for everybody working in mathematical physics!
   Previous version was not reliable since full of misprints.
   Now, thanks also to the help of many readers, they have been corrected.
   Surely some are left, but now this book can be considered a very reliable and useful tool.

No comments about The Mathematics Calendar 2009: Glimpses Below the Surfaces of Mathematical Worlds.

2 comments about Finite Math with Applications (9th Edition).

1. This is one of the worst math books I have ever had the pleasure of using.
   I usually always make A's in mathematics, and am also in Honors, but this book is a fight to understand.
   
   The answers in the back are wrong very often, about 1-3 times per exercise. There are about 4-7 exercises per chapter @ 10 chapters. This is extremely frustrating when learning new facets of mathematics. This book is being used at University I am attending, and is not worth this level of education. The instruction in the book is very confusing, by jumping from idea to idea with no flow. First the errors have to be filtered out before any learning can be done. The course I am taking is an online course, so without a live instructor to give the correct information, one leaves completely confused. I have emailed my professor at least once per chapter to confirm my correct answer against the wrong answer in the book. Or the answer key may have extra answers i.e. problem 11 may have questions a, b, and c, and the key will have answers for a, b, c, d, and e.
   
   TO ANY EDUCATOR LOOKING TO USE THIS BOOK FOR THE CLASSROOM, PLEASE CONSIDER ANOTHER RESOURCE, THIS BOOK IS OF VERY POOR QUALITY. Pearson should be ashamed to allow such bad editing to make it to consumers. This is the 9th (Ninth) edition printed in 2007. Math does not change enough to have such bad errors. Nor should any book be so jumbled.



2. I agree with Scott - this is the worst math book I've ever had to purchase. I actually had to go to the library and check out other books to get an idea of the topics that were discussed in THIS book. If you need this book for a class I suggest you do like I did and go to the library too so that you can pass because this book certainly won't help you in that aspect.

5 comments about R Graphics (Computer Science and Data Analysis).

1. Unleashing the power of R, particularly its graphing capabilities can be a daunting task. This is a well written book that covers all aspects of R graphics and gives plently of examples (with code). After using R for nearly 3 years now, I learned quite a bit of new information. Plus, the last 2 chapters of the book are very advanced and will likely require another 3 years before I can actually fully use them. Regardless, this a great book for people new and old to R.



2. It is a book which systematically introduces the traditional and grid system of R graphics. I can find almost every details I want in the past two months after I got the book. Before I read the book, I have been working with R for more than 3 years, but never be very clear to view the structure of R graphics. Thanks to Dr. Paul Murrell, I am much more confident with my knowledge in this area. By the way, he has kindly helped me by email to solve several layout()problems.



3. The book provides a good introduction to the R graphics system and gives a very good presentation of the kinds of graphs you can generate using R. This book is definitely not a how-to or cookbook for R graphics though. The book assumes the reader is already familiar with R and the graphics related commands, so there's not much explanation of the short code snippets that go along with the figures. If you're new to R, this book won't show you how to create graphs. It will show you the graphing capabilities of R though and possibly get you interested enough to keep using R.
   
   If you do know R, what this book *will* show you is how to do more complex things with R graphics. Half the book covers the traditional graphics model, while the other half covers the Grid and Trellis graphics models. This will be the interesting part of the book because Grid and Trellis look like they let users create really neat graphs and data representations with R.
   
   I would have liked to see some more complete examples in the book, but at least there's an accompanying website that contains all the code used to generate the graphs and errata for the book. This would be a good addition to an R user's bookshelf.



4. I am new to R and needed to create a particular style of heat map for a project. I spent 3 weeks studying this book's table of contents, sample chapter, examples on the author's website, etc. until the day came when I needed prepare my presentation. So I went ahead and bought the book. It was not what I needed and, in fact, I have not found it useful in the 2 months that I have owned it. Before the book even arrived I discovered the R Graph Gallery ([...]), which has a heat map that met my needs. My advice to those who are beginning to learn R is to be patient and use the many free, high-quality resources available on the internet for perhaps up to a year before starting to buy books.



5. R is a free software system that runs under Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS. R comprises a programming language, considerable support for statistical computing, and a set of powerful graphics functions. Murrell's book is about graphics.
   
   Graphics in R is done using various packages. One is "graphics", and its description occupies the first half of Murrell's book. But these days "graphics" is looking a little long in the tooth, and contains a number of infelicities that can't be changed because of all the old legacy code out there. Murrell himself wrote "grid" to fix this problem; "grid" is more general and better organized, but its functions are a toolkit for creating graphics; he's only built the tools, not assembled all the elements into simple and easy-to-use high-level plotting functions that "graphics" has. "Grid" occupies the second half of this book. Sandwiched in the middle is a chapter about "Lattice" (by Deepayan Sarkar); Murrell's chapter provides a brief overview, in part because lattice is built on grid, but lattice is better described by the online documentation, Sarkar's own book, and the books by William Cleveland, which introduced the whole idea of conditioned plotting of multivariate data. There's also an helpful (but brief) appendix describing how to get "graphics" and "grid" to work together, and an introduction to programming in R, which is too brief to be of much use of novices, and not detailed enough to help more advanced users.
   
   What's good: Although R comes with on-line documentation, the style of documentation for R is to describe the inputs and outputs of individual functions, but not provide much in the way of a conceptual overview. Murrell provides such an overview. Especially useful are a set of diagrams showing the various coordinate systems, lists of the line types and plotting symbols, and tables of the graphics state parameters. You could probably puzzle this out for yourself with just the built-in documentation, but Murrell's book will save you time and headaches. Also, his website has all the code that produced the book's figures, which can be quite instructive.
   
   What's bad: The description of the "graphics" package is incomplete, and the book's index is just terrible, which makes it hard to find things. Just as an example, if you want to see what the "mai" graphics parameter does, you should be able find it in the index under either "mai" or "par", a function which sets such parameters. There is a function index, but the functions are listed by package, not in a single, alphebetical list. If you know enough to find "par" under the graphics package in the index, then you get referred to a 30-page block of text. You won't find "mai" in the index at all. Nearly useless.
   
   Overall: R has a very powerful programmable graphics system. This book will help you use it. This book could be more complete, and begs for a decent index. A good example of a well-written and thorough book about a computer language is Guy Steele's Common Lisp; the R community hasn't gotten quite to that level yet.

2 comments about Know It All! Grades 6-8 Math (K-12 Study Aids).

1. For most states and test this is a great resource. It is filled with lots of helpful hints, stratigies, and examples on how to attack and answer many types of test questions.



2. I am very impressed with this book! Rather than just offering pages of simple computation practice, this book provides a concentrated skill lesson on important concepts. The practice problems are high level application problems, many are followed by a "how to find the answer" section. The book does a great job providing strategy ideas. For students who are taking state tests that are heavy on word problems, I feel this book provides good practice.

5 comments about CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae, 31st Edition (Crc Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae).

1. The more I use this book the more I like it. I use five "handbook-type" sources: this book, the old NBS handbook, the handbook by Bronshtein and Semendatyev, MathWorld on line, and Wikipedia on line; all have their virtues, and I would not do without any one of them. The great virtue of the CRC handbook is not that it's complete, which it isn't, and which no handbook can hope to be. Rather, given that the use of a handbook is to fill in missing facts or techniques in one's knowledge, that I can understand almost anything in the CRC handbook by reading it just once, without having to cross-reference to other sources or other parts of the book. This is an extremely difficult thing to achieve, and I tip my hat to the contributors and editors for doing it so well.
   
   Inevitably, the book pays a price for this. It's most notable in Chapter 8, "Scientific Computing", which is remarkably clear, at the expense of detailed discussion. Fine; so be it. At least I can understand everything it says. Given my druthers, I might have omitted some things from the book to make space for more thorough coverage of certain topics. My criterion wold be based on the assumption that anyone who refers to this volume with any frequency can be presumed to have a reasonably good scientific pocket calculator, so that those things that can be determined by a few keystrokes on a calculator could be safely omitted from this handbook. For example, although a discussion of indefinite integrals and a list of some of the less obvious ones is clearly appropriate, my pocket calculator will disgorge 95% of those listed in a 36-page table in this book if I just enter the integrand and ask for the indefinite integral by a single comand. Hence, my own preference would be to limit the list in the handbook to perhaps 5 pages, including discussion, and use that space to give more coverage to special functions and the relationships among those. But that's purely a matter of personal preference.
   
   An additional advantage of this handbook is that it's inexpensive, considering how much it contains. I get discouraged by the prevalence of technical books that I could really use, but which sell for so much that I can only consult them in my local library or get them on interlibrary loan. This book is inexpensive enough so that any techie who wants a copy can have his or her own. I wish there were more like it.



2. I was impressed by the fact that this book links mathematics. Rather than having many text books that include the development of the equation I am looking for, this book is organized to allow me to find the equation quickly.



3. The CRC Math Hand Book is a standard resource for any math, engineering or science student or graduate. I've had mine for twenty-five plus years now and I've always found it useful!



4. This book is a fantastic reference. The data is as vast as Mount Everest.
   
   Beware that this formal a reference and not a book for self-study.



5. Just now I've changed from 25th edition to 31st eddtion.
   It's very very useful for me as Structural Engineer.
   Excellent!!!

3 comments about Math Matters: Understanding the Math You Teach Grades K-8, 2nd Edition.

1. Conceptual, rather than procedural teaching of math--that is what this book tries to encourage. Although elementary math teachers can often (but not always) find the right answers for math problems, they overwhelmingly are ignorant as to WHY they follow steps spelled out in the procedure they learned so long ago. A teacher who does not know why cannot teach why. This makes for students floating in a permanent math fog. This book tries to fill the gap by laying out math basics--the mathematical principles behind the steps. I am a bit disappointed that no mention is made of the identity properties, but all in all, this book does a good, if sterile job. If you want to get EXCITED about understanding elementary math, you need to read Liping Ma's Knowing and Teaching Elementary Math.



2. "Suzanne H. Chapin is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Boston University in Massachusetts.
   Her work includes research in the areas of gifted education, curriculum design, and teacher professional development in mathematics.
   She is a coauthor of Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades 1-6 (Math Solutions Publications, 2003)."
   
   "Art Johnson is an award-winning educator who has taught for more than thirty years.
   During that time he has taught at the middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels.
   He has been named Teacher of the Year for New Hampshire and has received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching."
   
   "..... No matter what instructional program is being used, MATH MATTERS IS AN ESSENTIAL AND ACCESSIBLE book that serves all who teach or are about to teach K-8 mathematics---experienced instructors as well as those just starting out."
   [from the book of the back cover]



3. The ideas in the book are great, but clear that the book was written by professors because it is a bit dry to read. The best part of the book is the activities and ideas which teachers can use to teach various ideas in the classroom.