Oxford University Press
This is a splendid little book. It has something for everyone, from the most "mathematically disadvantaged" even as far as those, like this reviewer, gnarled and bruised from a lifetime's engagement with such doughty opponents as the Navier-Stokes equations! David Acheson has brought together a collection of familiar topics which combine a solid mathematical content with a capacity to intrigue the reader. The crucial concepts of rigour and logical precision are subtly entrained in a journey towards some of the great puzzles and revelations of mathematics. Elegance and beauty arealways emphasised, and the reader is left with a sense of the magic of mathematics, some of whose spells still, fortunately, remain to be understood. An earlier reviewer has advised everyone "... to go out and buy a dozen copies..." I heartily agree, and hope that our embattled schoolteachers (and university lecturers!) take up the cry. Perhaps, OUP, a paperback edition at half the price might be an incentive.
UK Nonlinear News would like to thank Oxford University Press for providing a review copy of this book.
A listing of books reviewed in UK Nonlinear News is available.