Comments on: Mathematics Reading List for High School Students

By: Bhrett Parrish

Bhrett Parrish — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:44:52 +0000

A History of Pi is a great book about the evolution of the value of pi and how we have came to know it today. It show cases fairly simple mathematics and can be found here:: http://www.amazon.com/History-Pi-Petr-Beckmann/dp/0312381859/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237567463&sr=8-1

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:08:49 +0000

“Another vote for “Godel, Escher, Bach” – this can be, no hyperbole, a life changing book for the mathematically inclined. ”

Absolutely. I only have A-level maths, but it’s still the best non-fiction book I’ve read by some margin (sorry, Phil).

By: Anil

Anil — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:32:18 +0000

Maybe “What is mathematics” – by courant, robbins and stewart

And “Does god play dice” by stewart.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:25:41 +0000

If these students are already into calculus at all, I’d suggest “Calculus Made Easy” by Silvanus Thompson, or (even better) Martin Gardner’s annotated reprint of the same book.

As for the concept of infinity, Rudy Rucker’s “Infinity and the Mind” is a good one – very entertaining!

Lastly, if any of your students enjoyed Edwin Abbott’s “Flatland”, I’d also suggest “Flatterland” by Ian Stewart, and “Spaceland – A Novel of the Fourth Dimension” by Rudy Rucker.

By: ts

ts — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:03:28 +0000

I have to agree with coolstar & Jimbo. I can see that most people here don’t deal with real high school students, outside of perhaps those occasional “feel good” science outreach programs. Looking at the book suggestions here, I can clearly see overenthusiastic math teachers who cannot communicate at all with students. So sad.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:06:53 +0000

CoolStar, Comrade in Arms…Merci beau coup, Monsieur !

Paul Murray…Ask them to count in base 2 to 64.
Me thinks you will get a sobering lesson in math reality,
and soon forget about logic circuits…Better to focus only on soldering !
The state of American HS math is worse than the American economy…
And that’s sayin A-Lot.

Estraven: Thinking math might keep your mind off hot hormonal rushes is like hoping abstinence pledges will also !

By: David Park

David Park — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:49:14 +0000

John Stillwell,
_____Numbers and Geometry
____ Mathematics And Its History

By: RDeen

RDeen — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:16:38 +0000

“Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics”, Martin Liebeck – great book that I read a couple of months ago, and I’m in high school too.

By: coolstar

coolstar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:29:26 +0000

Jimbo has it EXACTLY right. It’s hard to fathom how truly BAD most of these suggestions
are (no, I don’t have any better ones other than seconding Mark’s very valuable and pragmatic suggestion). The fraction of HS students interested in pure mathematics is probably one or two orders of magnitude LOWER than those interested in a career in physics or astronomy. I’m very happy when I get students out of HS who are not 1) totally innumerate
2) totally turned off by math and science (almost always by bad secondary teaching). Oh, want to change these numbers? Go volunteer at a high school or your local community college (and not just to teach the “smart” kids!). (my own teaching career mirrors Jimbo’s pretty well, by the way).

By: estraven

estraven — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:25:08 +0000

anon at 11:36 said:
“While in school, someone had gifted me Courant & Robbins ‘What is Mathematics?’ That book was a revelation.”
Same happened to me. That book made me a mathematician.
I also strongly second Feynman’s Physical Law. It takes away the guilt from wanting to be a mathematician .

To Jimbo, who claimed hormones make study difficult: I disagree. Mathematics is the only thing gripping enough to take your thoughts away from sex. Or so it seemd to me as a teenager.