Mathematics for the Nonmathematician

I am not a mathematician. I just happen to use math everyday in my trade. Just the usual stuff you use in finance. But I am interested in math, maybe just for fun (??!!). And I found this book to be very well written, very interesting and also it has a lot of history so you get to learn a lot and maybe in doing so, you also get to understand more clearly things that just pass you by when you were at school but you didn't really grasp them. This is math pageturner..I'm not kidding !!!

This book is truly an achievement. While not intended for true practitioners, the book is entertaining while though provoking at the same time. I take it with me to my favorite coffee shop sometimes just to open it randomly and read a few pages at a time. Not only does the author weave great historical moments with the progression of mathematical thought, he covers areas such as physics, art, music, and astronomy. He has also renewed my interest in taking the subject up again after many years. I have enrolled in a course in the Calculus based on this as well as other great math books.

Kline, a noted historian and educator of mathematics, wrote a book that stands the test of time. This isn't of much use to anyone with high-school math who doesn't care to know why math is the way it is. For everyone else, this is a good book. Solutions to problems at the end of the book are very handy. I recommend this book along with Timothy Gowers's "Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction".

A must have for the mathmatically curious. The subject seaquence is laid out in a logical order. Beginning with the premises of inductive vs. deductive reasoning, basic algebra, geometry, and the Calculus. This is not a good book for becoming proficient in sepcific areas of mathematics, but offered for me at least, a logical reference point for approaching the core sujects. I highly recommend this book for self-study.

I think the author not only knows mathematics, but also knows a lot about other fields, like physics, music, and painting. He is an expert in the history of mathematics and explains well how each important mathematics concept was developed over time. However, I would like to stress that Kline knows how to teach. The structure and the helpful hits in the books are valuble resources for any instructor who wishes to teach a course using this book as the main textbook.