How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.47 (798 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B00VVSBHL6 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 131 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-02-17 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Thomas said Everyone should read (eat) this book!. I can't believe how good this book is for illuminating what mathematics is. I have spent most of the past forty-five years trying to find the words to communicate what Eugenia Cheng has so masterfully done in this book. Whenever I get a chance in the future to talk about mathematics I will steal her metaphors and examples. I will also be recommending the book to all of my colleagues in education as well as students. I could not stop reading and wondered if she could continue, chapter after chapter, to come up with examples to make her c. "How to Bake Pi is the same book as Cakes, Custard and Category Theory which puts them in a category of their own." according to John Steward. I found this to be a terrific book and I wish I had been exposed to this while a student. It certainly makes mathematics much more comprehensible. On reading this book I've realized that my career in IT has been all about category theory. I would have given this book five stars, except that I recently purchased Cheng's recently released book, Cakes, Custard and Category Theory which is this book with a different title. And why aren't the two titles cross referenced by using Amazon's Formats and Editions feature? Just because the publish. David Maxham said This is the best book about math that I've ever read. This is the best book about math that I've ever read. This coming from someone who had loved math from a young age, majored in math, and have taught math for several years. Dr. Cheng deftly and simply talks about what math *is* (and what it is not). This is one of the biggest problems I face as a teacher. Most people don't know what math is and worse think they know what math is. This is a beautiful defense of the beauty in math while still maintaining a simple approach. I look forward to reading whatever Dr. Cheng writes in the future.
Rather than dwell on the math of our high school classes, with formulas to memorize and confusing symbols to decipher, Cheng takes us into a world of abstract mathematics, showing us how math can be so much more than we ever thought possible. In How to Bake Pi, Cheng starts with the basic question "What is math?" to explain concepts like abstraction, generalization, and idealization. By going back to the logical foundation of the math we all know (and may or may not love), she shows that math is actually designed to make difficult things easier. Cheng is an expert on category theory, a cutting-edge subject that is all about figuring out how math works, a kind of mathematics of mathematics. Through lively writing and easy-to-follow explanations, How to Bake Pi takes even the most hardened math-phobeon a journey to the cutting edge of mathematical research.. What is math? And how exactly does it work? In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng provides an accessible introduction to the logic of mathematics - sprinkled throughout with recipes for everything from crispy duck to cornbread - that illustrates to the general listener the beauty of math. From there, she introduces us to category theory, explaining how it works to organize and simplify the whole discipline of mathematics. The result is a book that comb