Alex's Adventures In Numberland: Dispatches From The Wonderful World Of Mathematics (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Other reviewers are probably right –you enjoy this book much more if you are not afraid of the few charts and formulas you will encounter. If you have no scientific background, and still enjoy math, my advice is to force yourself to understand as much as possible –it might be useful in the future. Take for instance, the Kelly's formula, a formula used to determine the optimal size of a series of bets. Sooner or later, you'll be pleased you have learned it!For someone with a scientific background, it's sometimes very basic, sometimes very enlightening –as example, I knew about nothing about Hindu arithmetic, and learned a lot. I can't really remember much about this book (I finished quite a few weeks ago with limited internet connection) but I'll give it a shot.Alex's book is very good if you want to dabble your toes in many aspects of maths, which is really good. Sometimes there would be topics I loved, sometimes I would have to pull myself through them. But that's more to do with the maths. It doesn't require much maths knowledge at all: I've just finished my AS's* (doing both maths and further maths) and I understood most of it (some bits were still confusing). And then my dad, who knows less about maths than me, also read it and seemed to understand most of it. Bar a few questions (but that's what the internet is for).So long and short if you want an intro into some more complex maths, this is probably one of the best places that you can start.*You do AS's two years before univeristy. So one year of AS's, one year of full A-levels, and then BOOM off to uni.
What do You think about Alex's Adventures In Numberland: Dispatches From The Wonderful World Of Mathematics (2010)?
A fantastic book on mathematics. The best I have read for recreational mathematics.
—Taryn
I enjoyed getting to know mathematics better through this book.
—Andy191
