A review by david_reads_books
Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula: Cures Many Mathematical Ills, by Paul J. Nahin
4.0
Actually, this book is over my head. Tons of very well laid-out math on complex topics. To read this book you should have a mathematical background equivalent to what a beginning third year college undergraduate in an engineering or physics program of study would have completed. So, done with Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Probability/Statistics. And you need to LIKE your Math!
The math on page 22 has the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, alpha and beta characters both super and sub-scripted, matrices of sin and cos terms, the Identity matrix, and De Moivre's Theorem. On this same page are phrases like: "not hard to establish", "simply take it as plausible", "refer to any good book on linear algebra", "all we have left to do", "a straightforward task", "equations are easy to solve for", "I'll let you do the algebra to confirm", "actually easily handled", "actually don't have to worry about that particular problem"
While I like math, and I'm an EE/Physics person, I am out-of-shape for this intensity level of math. I fully read ch 1, and then skimmed the rest of the book. The final 22 pages on Euler paint a nice bio. The author describes this book as a "second half" to his 1998 publication: [b:An Imaginary Tale: The Story of the Square Root of Minus One|357209|An Imaginary Tale The Story of the Square Root of Minus One|Paul J. Nahin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348774169l/357209._SY75_.jpg|347370] Maybe I'll go and try to read that book first.
1)Complex Numbers (matrices, 2D vectors, complex indeed!)
2)Vector Trips
3)Irrationality of pi^2
4)Fourier Series
5)Fourier Integrals
6)Electronics and sqrt(-1)
Euler: The Man and the Mathematical Physicist
The math on page 22 has the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, alpha and beta characters both super and sub-scripted, matrices of sin and cos terms, the Identity matrix, and De Moivre's Theorem. On this same page are phrases like: "not hard to establish", "simply take it as plausible", "refer to any good book on linear algebra", "all we have left to do", "a straightforward task", "equations are easy to solve for", "I'll let you do the algebra to confirm", "actually easily handled", "actually don't have to worry about that particular problem"
While I like math, and I'm an EE/Physics person, I am out-of-shape for this intensity level of math. I fully read ch 1, and then skimmed the rest of the book. The final 22 pages on Euler paint a nice bio. The author describes this book as a "second half" to his 1998 publication: [b:An Imaginary Tale: The Story of the Square Root of Minus One|357209|An Imaginary Tale The Story of the Square Root of Minus One|Paul J. Nahin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348774169l/357209._SY75_.jpg|347370] Maybe I'll go and try to read that book first.
1)Complex Numbers (matrices, 2D vectors, complex indeed!)
2)Vector Trips
3)Irrationality of pi^2
4)Fourier Series
5)Fourier Integrals
6)Electronics and sqrt(-1)
Euler: The Man and the Mathematical Physicist