Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)A interesting book covering a wide range of applications. The titles of the first four, of eleven, chapters gives a sense of the broad diversity of topics: (1) Positioning on Earth and in Space, (2) Friezes and Mosaics, (3) Robotic motion, (4) Skeletons and Gamma-Ray Radiosurgery. The material is generally well-written and is always interesting and instructive. This translation contains the occasional awkward sentence and, at least for U.S. readers, the occasional variant spellings, e.g., surprizing instead of surprising. At times, these can interrupt the smooth 'flow' of the text. Translation issues aside, this is a book that is both understandable and worth understanding.
Debatably, the most interesting application area presented is "Friezes and Mosaics", with its connection to linear algebra, symmetries, and transformations. Not surprisingly, applications discussed here are generally not unique to this work, and also appear in other application collections, e.g, the first chapter of "The Lighter Side of Mathematics" edited by Richard Guy also contains a discussion of frieze patterns.
There is some issue with marketing's description of the necessary mathematical prerequisites. Its overly optimistic to say, this book is "suitable for any curious individual with a decent command of high school math". This is an under-specification of the full prerequisite requirements.
For example, in the second chapter on Friezes and Mosaics readers are asked to remember, from their prior course work, "the classification of extrema of two variables using the second partial derivative test" and "the Hessian matrix". To gain full value from all chapters, readers will need in addition to linear algebra and Euclidean geometry, basic probability theory, as well as single variable and multivariable calculus. That is, they'll need more mathematical experience and maturity than might be implied from the specified prerequisite of a " decent command of high school math".
In conclusion: Acknowledging the occasional, albeit minor, awkwardness of the translation, for those with the appropriate mathematical prerequisites, this text can be recommended for its informative presentation of a variety of diverse and interesting mathematical applications.
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