The Student Room Group

suggested reading list for maths?

hi

i searched the web and couldn't find a suggested reading list for maths (my teacher recommended i make a start on it since i expressed interest in maths anyways)

can anyone quickly link me up?

thnx
Reply 1
I guess you only asked an hour ago, but the university maths forum might be more useful as, for obvious reasons, it has plenty of mathematicians.
Reply 2
Here's a list Oxford suggests. Not sure how much they are the sort of thing you're looking for.

Bridging Material

Allenby Numbers and Proofs (1997) 0340676531
Bostock, Chandler, Rourke, Further Pure Mathematics (1983) 0859501035
Liebeck, A Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics (2000) 1584881933

Popular Mathematical Texts
Acheson 1089 and All That (2002) 0198516231
Brown Philosophy of Mathematics (1999) 0415122759
Clegg A Brief History of Infinity (2003) 1841196509
Courant, Robbins and Stewart What is Mathematics? (1996) 0195105192
Devlin The Millennium Problems (2004) 1862076863
Devlin Mathematics: The New Golden Age (1998) 0140258655
Dunham Journey through Genius (1991) 014014739X
Du Sautoy The Music of the Primes (2003) 1841155799
Gardiner The Colossal Book of Mathematics () 0393020231
Gowers Mathematics A Very Short Introduction (2002) 0199504687
Gray The Hilbert Challenge (2000) 0198506511
Hilton, Holton, Pedersen, Mathematical Reflections (1998) 0387947001
Körner The Pleasures of Counting (1996) 0521568234
Polya How to Solve It (1945) 0140124993
Sewell (ed.) Mathematics Masterclasses:: Stretching the Imagination (1997) 019851493X
Singh Fermat’s Last Theorem (1998) 1857026691
Singh The Code Book (2000) 1857028899
Stewart, I. Concepts of Modern Mathematics (1995) 0486284247

History and Biography
Berlinski Infinite Ascent A Short History of Mathematics (2005) 0297848518
Burton The History of Mathematics (2007) 0071106359
Goldstein Incompleteness The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel (2005) 0393051692
Hellman Great Feuds in Mathematics (2006) 0471648779
Hodges Alan Turing: The Enigma (1992) 0099116413
Hoffman The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (1999) 1857028295
Hollingdale Makers of Mathematics (1988) 0140149228
Reply 3
woah is this stuff we are meant to read before we go up?!? cos i have an offer to be starting in october and i really dont fancy ready that many maths books i mean one or 2 i can deal with but?!?
Maths.... books....

Do the two go together? :p:
Reply 5
FadeToBlackout
Maths.... books....

Do the two go together? :p:


They've been known to...and the result is pretty scary.
Reply 6
dmw1989
woah is this stuff we are meant to read before we go up?!? cos i have an offer to be starting in october and i really dont fancy ready that many maths books i mean one or 2 i can deal with but?!?


You're not necessarily required to read any and the above's for people interesting in applying - so really i think reading one or two is a good idea to get a sense of what uni maths is like
Here's the Cambridge list, which includes a brief description of each book:
http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/undergrad/documentation/readinglist/text.pdf

I'd personally recommend anything by Simon Singh or Ian Stewart... and Flatland, a fiction book about a sphere visiting a world that exists in a plane - it's much better than that makes it sound (and not at all long, so worth the small time investment)!
Reply 8
I like quite a few of the recommended books on the Oxford list, but would also suggest these two, as I think they're great:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introducing-Fractal-Geometry-Introducing-Lesmior-Gordon/dp/1840467134/ref=sr_1_1/202-0904523-2616621?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174439407&sr=1-1

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introducing-Mathematics-Introducing-Ziauddin-Sardar/dp/1840466375/ref=sr_1_17/202-0904523-2616621?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174439486&sr=1-17

Out of the ones already mentioned, I particularly enjoyed "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" (Hoffman), "The Music Of The Primes" (Du Sautoy), and "Fermat's Last Theorem" (Singh).
thnx everyone :biggrin: yep they were exactly what i was looking for lol
thanks ,that is what i am looking for..
Reply 11
Singh - Linear Algebra Step by Step

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