Tuesday 28 February 2012

The Oak's Shilling


My new book, Maths in Minutes, is formally published on 1 March. It's a great format due to Quercus: 200 short articles on areas of mathematics, intended to introduce the non-mathematician to the subject. Even with 200 sets of 200 words it is impossible to cover the whole of mathematics, so I have concentrated on core mathematics rather than applications.

It looks good, and some of the entries are (I hope) very good, though there are inevitably some weaker areas! I am particularly proud of the introduction of the ideas of proof, and how Holmes' deductive method fits into this (the role of the contrapositive). On the other hand, the short topic-led format makes it harder to bring out the deep inter-connectedness of mathematics. You win some, you lose some.

You can buy it at all good bookstores, but I get no royalties (boo hoo).

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