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Can anyone weigh in on the math recommendations?
by xenihn 8y ago
Can anyone weigh in on the math recommendations?
- pphysch 8y agoThe last (only?) recommendation for Numerical Analysis, "Numerical Recipes", is infamous for its poorly-written and hard to parse code examples. AFAIK some of it doesn't even compile.
- Karrot_Kream 8y agoFor Algebra, I'd rather recommend Aluffi's "Algebra Chapter 0". The prerequisites are maybe a passing knowledge of some algebra, but mostly start with fundamentals and develop the concepts through explanation and then interesting exercises. It's a joy to work through, but can occasionally be tough. For Analysis, I'd rather recommend Tao's "Analysis I". Tao has the style that I really enjoy where he uses a mix of intuition and light mathematical maturity to build basic Analysis from first principles. Not everyone benefits from this approach, but if you're the person who enjoys discussing and debating with the author as you develop the fundamentals, then Tao's Analysis is fantastic.
- Koshkin 8y agoAluffi's book switches to the language of category theory way too early. The best introductory yet "serious" book on abstract algebra is A first course by Fraleigh; for topology, the book by Munkres is at the same level.
- Karrot_Kream 8y agoI preferred that approach, personally. I felt the categorical treatment led to a bit more unified insight rather than treading each of the cases as independent with similarities we just "take note".
- rakkie 8y agoI found the Stumbling Robot list of math books to be a bit better. It lists multiple books for a number of topics and explains the differences / difficulty. http://www.stumblingrobot.com/best-math-books/ http://www.stumblingrobot.com/best-math-books/