Kirkus Reviews QR Code
MATHEMATICS: Queen and Servant of Science by Eric Temple Bell

MATHEMATICS: Queen and Servant of Science

By

Pub Date: Jan. 15th, 1950
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Despite an alluring title that promises fair fields of lucidity, this one is definitely not for the reader whose battles with college algebra are over long since (with algebra the victor). For the engineer, the physicist, the mathematician, this book has an interesting and fresh approach, examining as it does, the traditional subject areas of algebra, geometry, calculus, from a birdseye historical viewpoint, and then diving down for a closer, more detailed picture. To the initiate, such merits are real, and all to the good. Nevertheless this reviewer would urge avoidence of spurious simplicity that beckons from popular sounding titles and genial anecdotal style. The expert will be able to reach the material per se. But the layman will come away frustrated and wary. This is no Mathematics for the Million.