Terence Tao: Just a brief announcement that I have been working with Quanta Books to publish a short book in popular mathematics entitled “Six Math Essentials“, which will cover six of the fundamental concepts in mathematics.
It should be according to Tao's own comment at the bottom of the blog:
"This book is for a general audience, without necessarily having a college-level math education. It is aimed more at adults than at children, but some children with an interest in mathematics may be able to get something of it."
It has one chapter each for Arithmetic, Computation, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Combinatorics, Probability, Logic.
He positioned it as a sort of a modern update to Felix Klein's Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint series of books.
From the preface;
This book grew from an article I wrote in 2008 for the centenary of Felix Klein’s Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint. The article reflected on Klein’s view of elementary mathematics, which I found to be surprisingly modern, and made some comments on how his view might change in the light of today’s mathematics. With further reflection I realized that a discussion of elementary mathematics today should include not only some topics that are elementary from the twenty-first-century viewpoint, but also a more precise explanation of the term “elementary” than was possible in Klein’s day.
So, the first goal of the book is to give a bird’s eye view of elementary mathematics and its treasures. This view will sometimes be “from an advanced standpoint,” but nevertheless as elementary as possible. Readers with a good high school training in mathematics should be able to understand most of the book, though no doubt everyone will experience some difficulties, due to the wide range of topics...
The second goal of the book is to explain what “elementary” means, or at least to explain why certain pieces of mathematics seem to be “more elementary” than others. It might be thought that the concept of “elementary” changes continually as mathematics advances. Indeed, some topics now considered part of elementary mathematics are there because some great advance made them elementary...
a brief tour of six core ideas—numbers, algebra, geometry, probability, analysis, and dynamics—that capture the beauty and power of mathematical thinking for everyone.
In Six Math Essentials, the renowned mathematician and Fields Medalist Terence Tao introduces readers to six central concepts that have guided mathematicians from antiquity to the frontiers of what we know today and now help us make sense of our complex world. This slim, elegant volume explores
numbers as the gateway to quantitative thinking;
algebra as the gateway to abstraction;
geometry as a way to calculate beyond what we can see;
probability as a tool to navigate uncertainty with rigorous thinking;
analysis as a means to tame the very large or the very small; and
dynamics as the mathematics of change.
Six Math Essentials—Tao’s first popular math book
Terence Tao's comment :- This book is for a general audience, without necessarily having a college-level math education. It is aimed more at adults than at children, but some children with an interest in mathematics may be able to get something of it.
It is just 160 pages so must be information dense with no fluff. I am sold !
I am atrocious at mathematics and held much contempt for the field until I was in college and 'saw the light,' if you will. Since college, I have absolutely fallen in love with mathematics. I learned it was not mathematics I always hated, but the U.S. public education system's method of teaching mathematics.
While I am still quite weak in the matter, I do believe that I will be preordering a copy of this book. Thank you for sharing this.
I find good popular books on higher mathematics difficult to come by. A nice exception is the trilogy written by Avner Ash and Robert Groß:
Elliptic Tales, Fearless Symmetry and Summing it up (in my order of preference)
It should be according to Tao's own comment at the bottom of the blog:
"This book is for a general audience, without necessarily having a college-level math education. It is aimed more at adults than at children, but some children with an interest in mathematics may be able to get something of it."
It has one chapter each for Arithmetic, Computation, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Combinatorics, Probability, Logic.
He positioned it as a sort of a modern update to Felix Klein's Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint series of books.
From the preface;
This book grew from an article I wrote in 2008 for the centenary of Felix Klein’s Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint. The article reflected on Klein’s view of elementary mathematics, which I found to be surprisingly modern, and made some comments on how his view might change in the light of today’s mathematics. With further reflection I realized that a discussion of elementary mathematics today should include not only some topics that are elementary from the twenty-first-century viewpoint, but also a more precise explanation of the term “elementary” than was possible in Klein’s day.
So, the first goal of the book is to give a bird’s eye view of elementary mathematics and its treasures. This view will sometimes be “from an advanced standpoint,” but nevertheless as elementary as possible. Readers with a good high school training in mathematics should be able to understand most of the book, though no doubt everyone will experience some difficulties, due to the wide range of topics...
The second goal of the book is to explain what “elementary” means, or at least to explain why certain pieces of mathematics seem to be “more elementary” than others. It might be thought that the concept of “elementary” changes continually as mathematics advances. Indeed, some topics now considered part of elementary mathematics are there because some great advance made them elementary...
Note: "Elementary" here does not mean Easy.
It will be interesting to see if Tao's writings are as clear, though possibly he is targetting a different audience.
a brief tour of six core ideas—numbers, algebra, geometry, probability, analysis, and dynamics—that capture the beauty and power of mathematical thinking for everyone.
In Six Math Essentials, the renowned mathematician and Fields Medalist Terence Tao introduces readers to six central concepts that have guided mathematicians from antiquity to the frontiers of what we know today and now help us make sense of our complex world. This slim, elegant volume explores
numbers as the gateway to quantitative thinking;
algebra as the gateway to abstraction;
geometry as a way to calculate beyond what we can see;
probability as a tool to navigate uncertainty with rigorous thinking;
analysis as a means to tame the very large or the very small; and
dynamics as the mathematics of change.
Six Math Essentials—Tao’s first popular math book
Terence Tao's comment :- This book is for a general audience, without necessarily having a college-level math education. It is aimed more at adults than at children, but some children with an interest in mathematics may be able to get something of it.
It is just 160 pages so must be information dense with no fluff. I am sold !
PS: Another book in the same (but easier) vein would be Ian Stewart's classic Concepts of Modern Mathematics - https://store.doverpublications.com/products/9780486284248
I am atrocious at mathematics and held much contempt for the field until I was in college and 'saw the light,' if you will. Since college, I have absolutely fallen in love with mathematics. I learned it was not mathematics I always hated, but the U.S. public education system's method of teaching mathematics.
While I am still quite weak in the matter, I do believe that I will be preordering a copy of this book. Thank you for sharing this.