Reviews for Basic mathematics

The average rating for Basic mathematics based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-05 00:00:00 Van Merrell This book is a straight, hard 9/10 read. Serge Lang was part of a group of mathematicians dedicated to making simple and efficient texts, and this book shows it: black and white, many numbers, not so many words, and lots of drilling for the student. This book doesn't require understanding or a weird approach, but just the readers' focus. A lot of it is needed*. You will have to read, understand the examples, and not skip anything. After all, it's all the maths you've ever done in school from the ground up with a little heavier technical side in about 400 pages. Anything less than that would be rushed or crazy. The dry way the book's written is its greatest strenght and perhaps its only, extremely minor downside: it's not a "precise" or perfectionist book, in the sense that when Lang is explaining something, he will tell you what it is and how it works, but it'll never go in-depth saying why it's like that or why it is named like that. The content is 100% maths and geometry with rare examples and some exercises, no historical sections, glossaries or recaps at the end of the chapter. These necessities can be covered by a maths dictionary and other books. There's a marked, really marked emphasis on proofs which is a godsend: these aren't stressed enough in school, and they're the important (and hardest) part of mathematics. If you want to be a mathematician, or simply if you will need to feel sure about your math skills in your field of study/work in a definitive way, this book will grant the bases, re-covering everything you did in school - and a little more - in a stylish manner. *DISCLAIMER 1: Real Physics - a.k.a. Jonathan Gardner -, a YouTuber, read the entire book and made over 70 videos, one for each paragraph of the book. At the moment he has just one Patreon. It would be ideal to watch anything if you prefer to hear lessons, or get stuck and perhaps don't understand something. DISCLAIMER 2: we all know having a book in your hands, on your desk feels nicer than reading a PDF (even science says so: we retain information better when we read material printed on paper or on e-ink readers rather than on a screen), but you may not really find a copy Basic Mathematics immediately and at a convenient price: while there are plenty of copies of this book, its cost has skyrocketed to upwards of 50$, and its new editor (Springer) followed with its reprints. To recap with new info too: the PDF of this book is widely circulated. The author is dead. There are entire lessons based on it online. It's a great book. You choose what to do.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-10 00:00:00 Julie Huffman Serge Lang was a regular guest lecturer at the university I attended. I always enjoyed the lectures. Even though I have been out of college for a number of decades now, I still find myself reading and even re-reading many of his works. This book is one that falls into that category.