Customer Reviews:
 A joy, and not just for mathematicians February 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is amazing. It takes a very boring and dry subject and makes it accesible and interesting, without ever once 'dumbing down'. This is NOT trigonometry for dummies. This is Trigonometric Delights, and it lives up to its title.
Ranging through historic approaches to trigonometry, coupled with sections on areas that obviously delighted the author when he discovered them, the book never loses the reader, which is an amazing achievement.
If I had to think of who would buy this book, then I would say:
any parent of a child (13-18) finding maths hard/boring/impenetrable
any university student
all maths teachers (especially the part about the unit circle)
anyone who liked Simon Singh's Fermats Last Theorem, but would have
liked to see more of the subject matter and less of the story
Basically, if you are interested enough to be reading a review of this book then you should buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you are not reading reviews about this book, don't buy it.
Very good if expensive! October 18, 2001
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
The book starts with angles and chords and a description of Plimpton 322. These chapters are good enough but the book seems to get better with each chapter. As a mathematics teacher, I found some of the chapters fantastic and others good, if a little heavy. The chapter "Two theorems from Geometry" states a few things I didn't previously know and made me think a lot!
The book is a little expensive, but like "e: The Story of a Number", the book is well written, interesting and most of all shows beauty in mathematics.
The appendix with a list of trigonometric formulae (not the basic ones you will already know) is wonderful.
If you like trig, get it, if not, you will when you read it!
|
