5 comments about Dictionary of Mathematics Terms (Barron's Professional Guides).

1. I am a second year Math/Physics student in college and this book is an invaluable resource for just about any formula, trig. subsitution, integral/derivative identity, mathematical terminology or concept in general. If you've ever found yourself searching for some mathematical expression, or the meaning of some obscure symbol, chances are it's in this book. Breif, clear, and concise definitions along with simple, yet descriptive visual aids. A must for any undergraduate science student.



2. A great bridge between a sometimes confusing text presentation and conceptual understanding. I will recommend Barron's as a must for my Algebra 1,2 and Honors students. Barron's is a valuable supplement for any secondary or post secondary mathematics program, keep it by your side.



3. One of the best pocket sized mathematics references I have found all around.



4. I bought Barron's and because it did not have all the words I wanted to look up; I then bought Harper-Collins Dictionary of math. Harper Collins is MUCH better. I am taking an advanced statistices course and it helped when Barron's did not. Much broader coverage.



5. This book is great at first...
   and then you look for something you *don't* already know. I've found a few nifty formulas and shortcuts in here, but I'm a junior and a BC Calc. student, and I must say that I don't see this book coming with me to college. It lacks lots of rules, tricks, and mainly lacks DEPTH. If I look something up to see its properties and not the definition it always ends up being some one-sentence blurb.
   
   Things completely missing: Descartes' rule of signs, the rule of 72, golden ratio (holy crap!), and others that I can't think of at the moment...
   
   Things I'm *pretty sure* are missing (could be under many def.s): angle of intersecting lines (arctan((slope1-slope2)/(1+(slope1*slope2))), degree of a multivariable polynomial (yes, I've needed to know this), right hand rules(!!!), signum, "smooth" lines, identity OR explanation of 0! ((zero)!), integral of factorial (int(((x^k)*(e^-x))dx,0 to infinity)), I don't think I can find "Test Statistic" in a formula...
   
   So: If you plan on maybe sorta kinda taking AB Calc. eventually, this is an ok book. If you need to know things like identities (weird, but useful ones), properties, or explanations beyond "This is what it is," then, look further. I consider myself an "avid" programmer, both on the TI89 and in C/C++, and I often find the need for things that *should* be in here, but aren't.
   
   It's... Ok.

5 comments about Barron's Math Study Dictionary.

1. My 12 year old (who hates math) picked up this book and said "awesome!" My 17 year old, who is taking pre-calculus, was fascinated - exclaiming, "I never knew that about circles!"

   This study dictionary defines and explains mathematical terms and functions in a comprehensive, dictionary-style format. The information is geared for students from pre-algebra through college.

   This is simply a reference that every student should have. The definitions and illustrated examples are grouped by concept. When you look up a term, you will find it on a page with all the other terms related to the same mathematical function. For example, the word "denominator" will be found under "fractions". In fact, just reading the definitions on any given page is a good introduction to the subject.

   A comprehensive 'wordfinder' index at the begining of the book directs you to the right page. This book would be a bargain at twice the price. (It probably will make more sense to your kids than the explanations in their textbooks).




2. Helps to explain what a derivative and denominator is in terms that you and your children can understand. More than just the number on the bottom of a fraction.



3. We order these for our school teaching staff. The price is so reasonable that it costs under $500 to do this. That is less than the cost of a football uniform!!



4. This "dictionary" is really more than a book of word meanings. Explanations are detailed and well-written. The index and table of contents make it very easy to find exactly what you are looking for. I use this book in my math classes all the time. The information is grouped around similar topics. Well worth the purchase price.



5. I am studying to pass a teacher certification test for High School Math. Barron's Mathematics 129 page book is the perfect desk reference. It is a mini-encyclopedia of remarkable scope. Descriptions are short, informative, and interesting. Brief examples, diagrams and simple English explanations are precise and clear. Hundreds of fast math facts through pre-calculus. Don't throw out your math books that go into more depth but for quick lookups this book can't be beat.

5 comments about The New Math SAT Game Plan.

1. I discovered this little book on Amazon.com and bought it for my daughter who was about to take the SAT again in the hopes of bringing up her math score. I can tell you that it worked for her. She raised her math score by 110 points! The strategies in this book work -- at least they do for the old SAT. I can't vouch for the new SAT that starts this year, but I strongly suspect the ideas will still hold.
   
   Thank you Philip Keller for making a huge difference in my daughter's math score and putting her in the running for admission to the highly competitive colleges to which she has applied.



2. I just took my SAT's a couple of weeks ago. I read the book and thought it was great. Keller introduces many interesting tactics and strategies for taking the SAT. He tells the reader which questions to answer and which ones to omit if you are low on time. He creates personal plans for students who want to get a specific score. The book also has a little humor in some places. I highly recommend this book!



3. As a college professor and long-time test-prep tutor, I've evaluated the gamut of test-prep resources. This is, hands-down, the best math SAT book I've seen: clear, articulate, and accessible without being condescending. I was so impressed that I researched (Googled) the author, and found out that he's won several teaching awards as a high school math and science teacher in New Jersey, which may explain this book's effectiveness: it's written by a teacher who can anticipate student questions and areas of confusion, not a desk jockey. After using it with a few kids, I have decided to make it the required math text for all my student clients. I'm wondering if there'll be one for the verbal section, too..



4. Keller knows what he's talking about. As a former physics student of his I can say with complete sincerity that he's the best teacher of my high school career. He goes above and beyond because he is passionate about what he does. It consequently makes sense that his SAT prep is not only effective but extremely efficient. In the four weeks that I learned his techniques and my proficiency rapidly excelled. It makes sense. Keller takes his time to research and understand the student experience. He's a man that is constantly challenging himself with new material. The learning experience is always fresh in his mind and in this way he is able to take on a dual ability: To effectively render understanding and understand exactly where understanding will be obscured. He knows when to pause for absorption of material and when to explain further. He's gifted at his trade and the academic community is fortunate to have him.



5. Keller is a great author whose done his work on trying to find out ways to help students. After reviewing this book, I felt that it helped me greatly, and prepared me well for the math section of the SAT's.

5 comments about Q.E.D.: Beauty in Mathematical Proof (Wooden Books).

1. I like just about everything about this little book. There are a couple of other books on pictorial proofs out there (The Most Beautiful Mathematical Formulas by Salem et. al. and Proofs without Words by Nelson), but this one is by far the most visually appealing. I particularly like the beautiful etching-like illustrations which, in my opinion, capture the timeless beauty of the various proofs very well.
   
   Included in the book is a nice mix of well-known and not so well-known material. For example, many people will know the nifty pizza proof that relates the circumference of the circle with its area, but it is probably quite a pleasant surprise for many that a similar relationship exists between the surface of a sphere and its volume.
   
   B.t.w., and if you have also read the other reviews this may surprise you, I really did read most of the book.



2. Great little book! Mathematicians will often tell you that mathematics is beautiful. However, they usually have a hard time conveying the beauty of math to their nonmathematical friends. The author/illustrator has done a great job in capturing this beauty in the form of truly magnificent illustrations of proofs, making Q.E.D. the ideal read for anybody interested in discovering this elusive mathematical beauty for themselves.



3. I only submit this review in order to correct some of the other reviews. Apparently some folks don't accept that 1 = .9999...
   
   The proof is simple. Let x = .9999...
   
   Therefore, 10x = 9.9999... and x= .99999 and so, 10x - x = 9x. That is, 9.9999... - .9999... = 9.0000 (.9999... - .9999... = 0000...). That is, 9x = 9.0000. Hence, x = 1.000 since 9/9 = 1.
   
   Why does the mathematical operators allow the results to crank out 1 = .9999....? Because the "=" sign operates as an association of two different mathematical models in the sense 1 is a mathematical model for .9999... just as .9999... is a mathematical for 1. It was this thinking that led Descartes to assert y = mx + b whereby this equation constitutes a mathematical model of the line in algebra just as the line is a mathematical model of y = mx + b in geometry. All proofs involve mathematical models. Goedel numbers are models of theorems. See J. N. Crossley's little book or D'Abro's book on the rise of physics (volume one) for lucid explanations of mathematical modeling.



4. If you feel that you have lost the touch of history of mathematics, have lost your creativity into the rigour of formal methods, and need integral calculus to solve simplest of the mathematical problems, this is the book you need.
   
   Q.E.D. is a compilation of ancient mathematical problems with unexpectedly short mathematical proofs, which one you know them, are as simple as they can be, yet you may not think of them by yourself.
   
   My idea is to train (or re-train) my mind with that creative thought with which you can find elegant proofs to mathematical problems rather than resorting to differential equations at each point. This book is just great on that.
   
   I could work myself through half of the book in about two days. So thought-provoking is the content that I ended up proving a few theorems myself that were not included in the book. (Yet I see a simpler proof of one of them later in the book!)
   
   I wish this book included five times more material than what it has. I wish to have all of mathematics to be taught in this fashion. Had once encountered a problem from electromagnetism that I could not even start on, finally gave up and continued reading the Feynman lectures on Physics (vol 2) to see the proof. The proof, albeit more complicated than all proofs in this book, Q.E.D., was still unexpectedly simpler.
   
   I wish for a book like Q.E.D. that teaches me a lot more mathematics. But this is not to say that Q.E.D. hasn't served the purpose it aimed for.



5. Q. E. D. is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "Quod erat demonstrandum", which means, "what had to be proved." In this book, Polster demonstrates 23 simple "proofs" of fundamental mathematical principles. I enclose the word proof in quotes because they are not always rigorous in the mathematical sense. In some cases they are more in the area of reasonably convincing reasoning.
   Some examples are:
   
   *) Cavalieri's principle
   *Archimedes' theorem
   *) The infinitude of primes
   *) The divergence of the harmonic series
   *) Slicing a cone by a plane will always give an ellipse
   *) Formulas for the sums of the first n-th powers.
   
   The mathematics is not rigorous, but that is not the intent here. The goal was to give a brief presentation and argument in favor of several fundamental mathematical principles. In my opinion, the author has found the mark, explaining these principles using language within the bounds of the merely interested rather than the learned professional.

5 comments about Mathematical Handbook for Scientists and Engineers: Definitions, Theorems, and Formulas for Reference and Review.

1. I have been using Korn and Korn for over 20 years, and have gone through two hardback editions, before buying the paperback one for my son who is studying electrical engineering. I would not have bought him anything else, because Korn^2 is the MOST complete mathematical reference book I have ever seen. It is infinitely more useable than Bronshtein and Semendyayev, and if you want to have one reference book Korn^2 should be your choice.



2. This Handbook has quite a lot of more formal math in it.
   
   Rade and Westergren's modern Handbook is more useful for finding the engineering equations you need, without all the formal stuff.
   
   I find both useful in different ways.



3. I have looked into a lot of mathematical handbooks but most are just junk. This one is the best available. The only one that is comparable to this is the one by Abramowitz and Stegun. If you need an applied mathematics handbook, go for this one.



4. This book is filled with formula's and theorems. However, one must have a basic understanding of all the formulas and theorems in order to understand most of them. If you love math and enjoy seeing how formulas and theorems are worked out this is an excellent book. Even though it is extremely thick. I had hoped they would explain in much more detail the order of operations. Other than that, it is a well put together reference book.



5. During 20 years of using the Handbook of Mathematics
   (by I.N. Bronshtein, K.A. Semendyayev)I was looking for an English written counterpart in this matter and sure enough I found it in this book. My point of view is personally based on engineering disciplines. With the help of Amazon's preview features it was a quick decision which book to buy. It has a well structured content, the concept is logically outlined, and discusses all chapters an engineer can ask for. That's probably why it has over one thousand pages, which makes it more a mathematical lexicon. The date of the publication might seem to be outdated, yet it proves that mathematic has become an almost static discipline engineers and scientists can rely on.

3 comments about Fundamentals of Actuarial Mathematics.

1. The problem with Life Insurance mathematics is that there are very few really good books on the topic. This book does little to alleviate this situation. Inspite of its title, "Fundamentals of Actuarial Mathematics" is essential a text book on Life Insurance mathematics. Of its 372 pages, 243 are devoted to Life Insurance mathematics (the remaining pages focussing on risk theory, in particular compound distributions, Markov chains, Poisson processes and ruin models, all of which are usually considered in the context of property and casualty or general insurance).
   
   The explanations in the book are easy to understand and a reasonable number of worked examples and exercises are provided (with answers to the exercises given at the end of the book). However, at the same time, the explanations lack depth and the text book stops short of covering many of the more advanced topics in Actuarial Mathematics (such as increasing insurance policies and bonuses).
   
   This is an adequate book for beginners and would be appropriate as a first text in Actuarial Mathematics. However, more advanced students are likely to find this book to be lacking.



2. Before buying this book I had never had any exposure to actuarial mathematics. I was looking for a good introduction that would fit my mathematical skills (PhD Economist feeling comfortable with applied mathematics but lacking the training in mathematical to do proofs or anything similar). Promislow's book fully met my expectations and increased my interest for the subject. In fact I have purchased more books since.
   
   It is true that the title is a little misleading as the book's primary topic is life insurance. However, there are three or four chapter dealing with risk theory providing a good introduction. What I found best in this book are the numerous exercises with answers in the back of the book. This allowed me to test my understanding of the subject and also what is important in each chapter. In some chapters it is not straightforward to see where the author is heading, however, the exercises compensated very well for this.
   
   All in all I can warmly recommend this book to anyone who has a good background in mathematical economics at the level of Varian (Microeconomic Analysis) and who wants to get a good introduction into the topic.



3. This is an excelent handbook for any who seek an introduction of the Actuarial Math's.

No comments about Mathematics Methods and Modeling for Today's Mathematics Classroom: A Contemporary Approach to Teaching Grades 7-12.

5 comments about Useful Mathematical and Physical Formulae.

1. Wooden Books have done it again. Quite how they managed to fit the major equations from Maths and Physics into one tiny cartoon book is quite beyond me. With a great little Wizard and a pair of elf-things to help you get the picture, this book covers algebra, statistics, geometry, probabilities, trigonometry, mechanics and so much more you wont believe it. With metric-imperial conversion stuff at the back and iterative functions too, this is the present of choice for any maths fan out there. New Scientist Magazine UK gave it 9 out of 10, so I'll give it 5 stars here!



2. This is an amazing small book that has the information density of a microchip. It covers so much ground in numerous quantitative disciplines. If you don't know or remember a specific subject or formula fairly well, you'll need to study the material over at supplemental informational sources such as Wikipedia. But, it is a great short cut or glossary of the main formulas in math, physics, and trigonometry.



3. Besides the presentation of the book, which I think is inspiring (our natural physics are constantly alluded to as a form of sorcery, and that at least catches MY enthusiasm, far from the world of books and chalkboards), the actual physics here are explained in enough detail for the reader to make intelligent use of the formulas it contains. Anyone that's been familiar with working physics problems in the past will find this book perfect for refreshing the memory, not just of the formulas themselves but what they MEAN.



4. "Useful Mathematical & Physical Formulae" offers a compendium of important formulae from mathematics and physics. A lot of ground is covered in the +/- 50 pages of this book.
   
   Most useful, in my opinion, for individuals who use mathematics and/or physics on a regular basis, this book could also serve as a good "jumping-off point" for a wider audience for further reading and learning in areas covered in this publication.
   
   What I found most interesting about this book was the highly dense (in terms of content) contiguous presentation of formulae from a wide array of areas within the fields of both mathematics and physics.
   
   For those readers with an interest in numbers in general...and some important formulae that describe many aspects of life...this is an interesting read.



5. The title is a bit misleading as all physical formulas are also mathematical in nature. This book is a synopsis of the most widely used formulas to describe geometric figures and then moves on to areas of physics such as motion, work, heat flow, light, sound and electricity. There is a brief explanation of each formula and detailed diagrams are used to complete the descriptions. While this book is useful as a pocketbook of reminders, it has little use if your goal is to learn how mathematical formulas describe the physical world.

2 comments about HOW TO USE A CHINESE ABACUS: A step-by-step guide to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, roots and more.

1. This is a great book on a hard to find subject. Gives clear step-by-step instructions as well as practise problems and history. If you want to learn the abacus, this book is all you'll need



2. I bought this book wanting to learn how to use an abacus and have had no previous experience- I'm pretty sure I hadn't even held one before. This book is very easy to read and the directions are very clear. I strongly suggest it!

2 comments about Regression Analysis by Example (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics).

1. I used this book for an introductory/intermediate course in regression.
   
   Although the authors presented a lot of material and I did find it informative, I found myself having to refer to other texts for a better explanation of about half of the material presented.
   
   To me it read like an academic paper. It seemed that all the variables were explained only once in the text and used throughout the book without a central glossary or formula page. There also seemed to be a lot of subscripts and superscripts to the variables, as well as bouncing back and forth between data examples, which made following the concepts difficult.
   
   There was a lot of information packed in the book's pages, but it was real difficult reading and trying to comprehend past the second chapter.



2. Its strength is in the examples. It is true that the book also employs formulas, but most of them are informative and fairly easy to follow if you have a moderate background in statistics. I would recommend this book for an intermediate course in econometrics, mainly because it offers a comprehensive view of the subject and ways to apply analysis tools. I give it five stars for the presence of applied data.