Reviews for Practice And Problems In Advanced Mathematics

The average rating for Practice And Problems In Advanced Mathematics based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-17 00:00:00 Robert Caprari For someone whose native language was Swedish, not English, the book is well written. Still, I would have preferred a more chronological approach to the subject instead of a topical approach that seemed to somewhat erratically move between eras. The author moves from the introduction of Romanism (the Roman Catholic Church) which became the "state" church to the change to the Lutheran church as the Swedish state church. He also goes into some detail of the Lutheran church's persecution when Baptists tried to send missionaries and establish churches in Sweden, of which I, and I would think most others, are unaware. The persecution and the poverty of so many people caused a mass migration of about one-fifth of Sweden's population to the USA where many settled in the midwest states during the late 1800's. This book is an easy read, and would be of interest to those who like to read church history. I've not found any evidence that my Swedish ancestors were Baptists, but they were part of that great migration to the USA during the 1800's

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-10 00:00:00 Robert Miller I really enjoyed this book - thanks to Amy for recommending it. It makes me want to read Godel Escher Bach, which I have always wanted to read but never felt brave enough. I loved the actual mathematical core of each essay - the concepts were very clearly explained and even I, with my less-than-adequate spatial imagination, was able to visualize the abstract mathematical constructs Guillen described. I finally "get" non-Euclidean geometry, irrational numbers and topology, at least well enough for my purposes. I'd love it if he wrote a new edition - it was written in 1985 and I'm sure many advances have been made in math theory and application since then. For example, the last chapter on combinatorial problems (e.g. airline routing) hinges on the idea that no computer current (in 1985) or in the "foreseeable future" would have the power to completely solve these complex problems. I wonder if this is still the case. There was one really dated and infuriating reference in the chapter on Godel, where Guillen uses as an example of an unproveable verity "a seductive question" psed by a man to a woman in a TV ad: "Is it true when you say no, you really mean yes?". Argh! The reason the book got only 4 stars is that each chapter ended with a paragraph or two, trying to tie the math to some aspect of human philosophy, psychology or social theory. Those paragraphs seemed very weak to me, and by half-way through the book, I found myself just skimming them, and turning the page quickly to get to the next substantive bit of writing. I was surprised, because I generally love books that tie ideas together from diverse fields, but these connections just didn't work for me. I think I'll end up re-reading several of the essays in this book every year or so, to really lock in the math concepts.