Additional Readings

The following is a list of books, mainly of a descriptive nature, that explore some areas of mathematics that are not covered in first year courses. Khinchin's book [10] is the only one that is of technical nature; it is, however, accessible to a first year student with a great deal of hard work. Most of these books are available in Carlson Library.

  1. Men of Mathematics, E.T. Bell; Simon and Schuster, New York, 1937.

  2. What is Mathematics?, R. Courant and H. Robbins; Oxford, 1941.

  3. Number, The Language of Science, T. Dantzig; Anchor, 1956.

  4. The Mathematical Experience, Davis, P.J. and R. Hirsch; Birkhauser, Boston, 1981.

  5. Art and Science, Escher, M.C.; (H.S.M. Coxeter, M. Emmer, R. Penrose and M.L. Trewber, Editors); North Holland, 1985.

  6. Great Moments in Mathematics (2 vols.), H. Eves; Mathematical Association of America, 1983.

  7. A Mathematician's Apology, G.H. Hardy; Cambridge, 1940.

  8. Geometry and the Imagination, D. Hilbert and S. Cohn-Vossin; Chelsea, 1952.

  9. Godel, Escher, Bach, D. Hofstader; Basic Books, New York, 1979.

  10. Three Pearls of Number Theory, Y.A. Khinchin; Dover.

  11. Mathematics in Western Culture, M. Kline; Oxford, 1953.

  12. The World of Mathematics (4 vols.), J.R. Newman; Simon and Schuster, New York, 1956.

      "Our minds are finite, and yet even in those circumstances of finitude, we are surrounded by possibilities that are infinite, and the purpose of human life is to grasp as much as we can out of that infinitude."
      Alfred North Whitehead