Ancestors

Written by lcamtuf :verified: :verified: :verified: on 2024-09-03 at 04:29

Ah yes, I remember buying that textbook

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Written by Jeffrey Goldberg on 2024-09-03 at 04:42

@lcamtuf, Chapter 1 defines numbers, some common mathematical notation, and a few other things that give you hope that you can read this book.

You might get through Chapter two.

By Chapter 3, you,put it on the shelve with all your other Springer textbooks.

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Written by jonathankoren™ on 2024-09-03 at 05:42

@jpgoldberg @lcamtuf Springer books are like the math entries on Wikipedia. They’re both places where people are in a competition to make themselves as baroque and not just esoteric, but practically occult as possible.

Now excuse me, I have to finish replacing the word “one”with“unity”

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Written by John Carlos Baez on 2024-09-07 at 21:40

@jonathankoren - they're actually not trying to be baroque, they are just mathematicians talking the only way they know how. I know: I'm a mathematician, and I find these entries generally quite clear. The problem is, it's hard to get mathematicians to write in ways that nonmathematicians can understand. At least the first paragraph should be aimed at everyone.

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Toot

Written by Benjamin Geer on 2024-10-01 at 11:35

@johncarlosbaez @jonathankoren Donald Knuth’s Concrete Mathematics makes me think that maybe computer scientists are generally better at writing maths textbooks than mathematicians are.

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Descendants

Written by John Carlos Baez on 2024-10-01 at 16:41

@benjamingeer @jonathankoren - "Generally", eh? Do you have more than one example?

It's a great book, but Knuth happens to be a great writer, writing about one of the things he knows best. Also, "concrete" mathematics is a lot easier to explain to people who already know calculus than anything like abstract algebra, topology, real analysis, and so on - the main topics in upper-level undergraduate math courses.

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Written by Benjamin Geer on 2024-10-01 at 18:15

@johncarlosbaez @jonathankoren I’m definitely overgeneralising from a sample size of 1 😄

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