11 books that will boost your mathematical thinking

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These books will teach you how to solve math problems and puzzles in no time.

1. "Think Like a Mathematician" by Barbara Oakley

Anyone can develop mathematical thinking. One has only to master a few techniques. Barbara Oakley, PhD, explains how science specialists work with problems. After reading the book, you will learn why it is important to assimilate knowledge in portions, how to achieve insight, why it is better to remember and not reread.

Suitable for everyone who wants to develop memory, logic and effectively work with information.

2. "Who Needs Mathematics?", Nelly Litvak and Andrey Raigorodsky

Professors of mathematics Nelly Litvak and Andrei Raigorodsky talk about where and how mathematics is used in the modern world. By giving various examples, they prove that the world is based on formulas, and infect with the desire to master them. The book is written in accessible language and contains many detailed explanations.

Suitable for high school students, students and adults in the humanities.

3. "The Magic of Mathematics", Arthur Benjamin

Mathematical formulas are spells without which the world cannot live a day. The book by mathematician and combinatorialist Arthur Benjamin will help you master many formulas and concepts, teach you to count in your mind and guess the numbers that other people have thought of. In addition, you will find out how knowing the integrals can help you renovate your apartment and what you need to know to win at poker.

The book is written for anyone interested in mathematics.

4. "How Not to Be Wrong," Jordan Ellenberg

Mathematics allows us to make less mistakes and to think critically about information. Jordan Ellenberg's book provides an accessible mathematical method for analyzing life, developed by the scientific community. You will learn how to understand the world through the prism of precise knowledge and formulas, you will understand how lotteries and artificial languages work, what is the beauty of Italian Renaissance painting and what Facebook knows about you.

The book is intended for a wide audience.

5. "The Mathematics of Love" by Hannah Fry

A book about the mathematics of love and the love of mathematics, which will prove that our emotions can be predicted through formulas. Hannah Frye, Behavioral Analyst, explains how to apply the laws of mathematics to relationships.

Is it possible to measure the permissible number of cheating? How to determine the optimal number of sexual partners? The ideal number of guests for a wedding is how many? The author of the book will help you solve the equation of love and will fall in love with science.

6. "Mathematics for Adults", Kjartan Poskitt

Kjartan Poskitt, engineer and author of the Murderous Maths children's book series, will teach you how to click math problems like nuts. In his book, he collected simple and straightforward tricks for verbal counting, mathematical terms and number tricks. You will learn how to calculate interest on a loan, multiply and divide large numbers, calculate areas and volumes of figures and convert feet to meters in a matter of seconds.

The book will appeal to everyone who wants to learn how to count quickly.

7. "The Magic of Numbers" by Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer

To count quickly in your head, you do not need to study mechanics and mathematics. The book by Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer will teach you how to make calculations faster than a calculator and memorize long sequences of numbers. Ready-made formulas, similar to magic spells, will teach you how to multiply and divide three-digit numbers, raise to a power, and work with fractions.

The book contains many exercises and will be useful to everyone.

8. "Mathematical Ingenuity", Boris Kordemsky

The legendary problem book of the Soviet mathematician Boris Kordemsky was released in 1954, went through many reprints and was translated into dozens of languages. It contains logical games, mathematical tricks, chess and geometric problems, problems without calculations and with interesting numerical patterns.

The book develops mathematical thinking and will please even hopeless humanities.

9. "5 minutes for reflection", Yakov Perelman

A collection of puzzles by the famous Soviet mathematician Yakov Perelman was released in 1950 and reprinted dozens of times. The book contains interesting physics experiments, mathematical puzzles, magic tricks, chess problems and crosswords.

Suitable for everyone who wants to wiggle their brain and develop memory and logic.

10. Professor Stewart's Math Puzzles by Ian Stewart

The collection of problems by the mathematician and popularizer of sciences Ian Stewart is built in the form of the adventures of detective Hemlock Soames and his friend Dr. John Watsap. Characters solve puzzles, problems, share hypotheses, talk about theorems and statistics. You will learn about the shape of the orange peel, the pancake numbers, the square peg hypothesis.

The book will be of interest to everyone who loves to solve riddles.

11. "The Greatest Mathematical Problems," Ian Stewart

The purpose of mathematics is to reveal the inner simplicity of difficult questions, and not to scare away students. In his book, Professor Ian Stewart talks in an accessible language about the greatest mysteries of modern mathematics, over which the greatest minds have fought and continue to fight. The reader will learn why it is so important to solve these problems and what place they occupy in science, as well as get acquainted with Fermat's theorem, Poincaré's conjecture and Kepler's spherical symmetry.

The book is intended for a wide audience.