The Mathematical Experience

Winner of the 1983 National Book Award! "...a perfectly marvelous book about the Queen of Sciences, from which one will get a real feeling for what mathematicians do and who they are. The exposition is clear and full of wit and humor..." - The New Yorker (1983 National Book Award edition) Mathematics has been a human activity for thousands of years. Yet only a few people from the vast population of users are professional mathematicians, who create, teach, foster, and apply it in a variety of situations. The authors of this book believe that it should be possible for these professional mathematicians to explain to non-professionals what they do, what they say they are doing, and why the world should support them at it. They also believe that mathematics should be taught to non-mathematics majors in such a way as to instill an appreciation of the power and beauty of mathematics. Many people from around the world have told the authors that they have done precisely that with the first edition and they have encouraged publication of this revised edition complete with exercises for helping students to demonstrate their understanding. This edition of the book should find a new generation of general readers and students who would like to know what mathematics is all about. It will prove invaluable as a course text for a general mathematics appreciation course, one in which the student can combine an appreciation for the esthetics with some satisfying and revealing applications. The text is ideal for 1) a GE course for Liberal Arts students 2) a Capstone course for perspective teachers 3) a writing course for mathematics teachers. A wealth of customizable online course materials for the book can be obtained from Elena Anne Marchisotto ([email protected]) upon request.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member phiroze

A truly enjoyable read. The author tries to focus on the "experience" of mathematics. However, the depth and breath of the topic makes this an unsurmountable task. To that end, a user looking for an indepth "mathematical experience" is better of reading biographies on various other mathematicians.

That being said, this is a perfect weekend read. The topics are lucidly explained. The die cut illustrations are brilliant and in of themselves could be the sole reason for possesing this book.

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LibraryThing member FPdC

This is the portuguese translation of The Mathematical Experience. An interesting attempt to convey the nature and importance of Mathematics to the lay reader, the text digresses through a variety of topics in a clear and, at times, inspired prose. It is not a mathematical text though, and apart

from Chapter 5 and some examples spread through Chapters 4 and 6, not much mathematical culture is required from the reader, although someone lacking a mathematical education at the level of the first two years at the University will probably miss the better parts of the arguments and is likely not to make much sense of the rest. In spite of some odd choices (such as the emphasis in the example of Non-standard Analysis, a clearly marginal subject in present day mathematics) this is a book worth reading that tries to portrait the mathematical activity as part of the large human effort to understand and make sense of ourselves and the world.

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