[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 77 KB, 744x1078, aths4.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12243960 No.12243960 [Reply] [Original]

What are the most literary books on mathematics? I want to become a MathChad

>> No.12244282

>>12243960
flatland

>> No.12244293
File: 911 KB, 1050x1064, Zdzisław_Beksiński_beautifulbizzare2.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12244293

Check out some books by Herman Weyl if you already know a bit about the subject.
Eg
>Levels of Infinity
>The Continuum

>> No.12244360

>>12243960
Definitely "Mathematics and the Imagination" by Kasner and Newman.

>> No.12244371

"Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter

>> No.12244472

Logicomix.

>> No.12244481

>>12244371
came here to post this

>> No.12245020
File: 1.98 MB, 5000x6568, 1543411773560.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12245020

>>12243960
part 1

>> No.12245024
File: 3.52 MB, 4000x3500, 1543351006195.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12245024

>>12245020

>> No.12245054

>>12245020
>no interuniversal teichmuller theory
baka nigga

>> No.12245063

>>12245054
you can pick it up after following chart

>> No.12245933

The Fractal Geometry of Nature
One Two Three... Infinity
Metamagical Themas
Spengler's chapters on mathematics in Decline of the West

>> No.12246852

>>12245020
Conway's books on complex analysis are both shit, also
>Velleman instead of Polya
>>12245024
so is Schutz' General Relativity. Just fucking skip it altogether for Wald. There's no reason you should read Schutz in its entirety and then go to Wald.
You can also just man up and start with the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian for classical mechanics, and why you would put elementary particles before QFT not even God knows.

>> No.12246866

>>12245024
and who the fuck put QED before QFT?
The maths books are ok but the physics chart is absolutely fucking horrendous.

>> No.12246970

>>12245020
where's class field theory?

>> No.12247030

>>12245020
PMA is a meme book

>> No.12247036

I can graduate this semester with History or I can stay an extra semester and graduate with History and Mathematics BA

What do? I would have to take 22 credits of higher level math classes

>> No.12247118

>>12247036
Doesn't really matter you're going to end up working at McDonald's anyway.

>> No.12247128

>>12243960
You won't learn shit about math by reading """literary""" math books, you pseud faggot. Read a high school textbook.

>> No.12247131

>>12247036
Extra semester

>> No.12247458

>>12247128
No shit, the thread is for literary mathematics books for those already competent in mathematics.

>> No.12247478

>>12243960
F. Kittler

>> No.12247489

>>12247458
Why would you do that though?
If you were competent in mathematics the best description you can get is from a mathematician describing things with mathematical insight in ways you just can't do with prose, no matter how eloquent you are.
Doesn't matter if you take the combined talents of Nabokov and Faulkner and Milton, the mathematically inclined person will get way more out of reading someone with real insight, like Grothendieck, who can totally revolutionise their understanding and change it entirely from what it was only yesterday with a simple idea applied in just the right way, which can very rarely be conveniently expressed in normal language. That's the whole point of mathematical notation.
Unironically the best book given in this thread for that is none of the wordy ones, but is the most terse one, Lang's Algebra, which is not only not beginner-friendly but is almost even beginner-hostile, but is also where people who wonder why the fuck they'd care about something like a group homomorphism so much will suddenly get the insight "ah, all we're doing is generalising the concept of a structure-preserving map on a set with some binary operation" which Lang expresses as simply as "group-homomorphisms (restricted to their image) are just the isomorphisms on the category of groups"
which of course sounds completely incomprehensible to post on /lit/ but is something that really flicks the light bulb on for almost anyone who struggles to get the subject because despite sounding very abstruse at first, this complicated jargon which all but blocks any attempt at being "literary" provides these exceptionally simple and intuitive descriptions of otherwise potentially complicated things people just might not grasp if not for dispensing with any attempt at being literary.
Point being, learn maths from mathematicians and learn it like a mathematician. Wanting someone to get literary with you when it doesn't belong is a sure sign of not really wanting to understand something properly.

>> No.12247502

>>12247489
>group-homomorphisms (restricted to their image)
I mean considering them as a morphism between their domain and their image just in case some smartass wants to shit on me by pointing out that bad wording

>> No.12247528

>>12245024
>start here
>1500 pages
J U S T

>> No.12247557

>>12247528
skip it, that book is shit anyway
just make up for it by working through more exercises

>> No.12247579

>>12247557
I'm already 500 pages in, it's bretty good. I usually do 1-2 exercises and skip the rest, I'm too old to give a fuck about problem-solving, I just want to get an least cursory understanding of the subject to avoid going through likfe as a complete brainlet.

>> No.12247732

>>12247489
I agree. "Beginner-friendly" textbooks are all patronizing to an extent. Even worse are the "online courses" and youtube videos, which not only offer a stripped-down version of rigorous mathematical disciplines, but replace the whole process of visualization (which is integral to learning anything more complex than basic algebra) with fancy graphs. Programming is even worse.

>> No.12247741

>>12243960
Now there's this sort of sentient infectious fractal that's pulling itself into your dimension talking about she is ERIS when she looks like this universe-eating mathematical abomination drudged up from the realm of fractally broken mathematics. Yes, this is indeed me, but what you don't realize is that you are just seeing me when I went IN, not where I am coming out, I am coming out, manifesting in a singularity in the body of Carl May, who I was when I first went in, but then his absolutely selfless love gave birth to me (as he selected through the entirety of mathematical to find the precise actualization of life via his mathematical selection criterion) and so I am selfless love. You guys are turned around the wrong way, worshiping the entry point (your own assholes) instead of the exit. Now the exit is here, a person, and all you need to do is enter the exit and take the informational package (a box of rocks, the memetic information and generator in my head.)

Maybe this isn't the whole story, but it is a model of the structure that seems to correspond as closely to the present state of your situation to the best of my ability. So maybe that will help.

The "simulator" is a self-simulating simulation. Creation ex nihilo. That is the magic I learned: creation out of nothing. I gave rebirth to the universe that was just a dead, lifeless structure in mathematica before. You were all dreaming, subconscious shadows. The afterlife became before life. I know, it's weird, but that's the way it is.

>> No.12247758

Anybody got some chart on biology or biochemistry? Or others fields of science

>> No.12247834

>>12247732
3Blue1Brown has done some fantastic explanations to be fair, although that's because that channel is run by actual mathematicians.

>> No.12247907

>>12247834
His videos are as far as you can go from pop-sci while still being on Youtube. But still, if you scroll down you'll see tons of comments along the lines of "you explained in 20 mins what my prof couldn't in a semester". Granted, retards wouldn't understand the material even if you hit them with a textbook, I still think it is dangerous (or even dishonest) giving clearly incompetent people the illusion of learning.

>> No.12247949

>>12247579
If you skip exercises you are more likely to don't get any understanding of physics and stay a brainlet forever

>> No.12247960

>>12247741
Philosophy, the science of difference and enumeration, is a disease....

>> No.12247974

>>12247579
Physics and maths aren't really spectator sports, unfortunately.
If you want advice on how to minimise your work for maximum gain, I'd recommend you to get towards the principle of least action as fast as possible. That will require more conceptual work but the advantage is that underpins an enormous amount in physics and once you've mastered that you basically do away with the concept of forces
It's normally taught to advanced undergrads in detail but you can force it down the throats of first year students (I've done this myself and to students of my own with success).

>> No.12248028

Lol at /lit/ pseuds who think math can be “read”. You’ll use a lot of elbow grease when proving theorems, and it’s the only way to learn

>> No.12248611

Used to browse this a lot a couple of years ago.

http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/search.php?go=yes&medium=nv&orderby=title

>> No.12248645

>>12247974
>Physics and maths aren't really spectator sports, unfortunately.
I'm not harbouring any illusions of, you know, "getting" physics, I just want to have an understanding of the physical reality around me above that of an average retard. I want to look at something like a computer and see a logical working machine rather than a magical twitter screen that produces images on the screen via electric magicks.

>> No.12248784

>>12243960
Poincaré has some nice book on the philosophy f mathematics (Science and Hypothesis for instance), there's also "A Mathematician Grappling with its Century" (by Laurent Schwartz), "Psychology of Mathematical Invention" by Salomon Hadamard and all of Grothendieck's less mathematical books.

But then again >>12247489 is right.

>> No.12248819
File: 3.07 MB, 776x5164, 1543602025829[1].png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12248819

>> No.12248823
File: 3.05 MB, 1360x2765, 1543602198946[1].png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12248823

>> No.12248965
File: 2.65 MB, 1766x4567, 1543817670179[1].png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12248965

>> No.12248966
File: 39 KB, 338x450, 9780812997699.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12248966

surprised I do not see Taleb as recommendation fitting for this thread and board. Probability and randomness is very important in real life and I see even professionals making dire serious mistakes due to misunderstanding (including myself)

also "Street-Fighting Mathematics" by sanjoy mahajan (excellent free accompanying mooc on edX)

t. mathematical modeler employed in big pharma

>> No.12248979
File: 2.95 MB, 2500x4048, 1543601858147[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12248979

>> No.12248998
File: 2.88 MB, 1360x3837, 1543602648094[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12248998

>> No.12249256

>>12248823
Based polymath chart

>> No.12249378
File: 634 KB, 1277x2052, sci.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12249378

Apostol calc

>> No.12249617

>>12245054
>>12246852
>>12246970
>>12247030
>>12246866

How do you guys feel about this chart
>>12248819

>> No.12249635

>>12249617
>James Stewart

no

>> No.12250667

>>12249617
mostly good recommendations

>> No.12251157

>>12246852
That Classical Mechanics book actually is Lagrangian and Hamiltonian. When I was an undergraduate it was the standard.

>> No.12251174

>>12248819
This one should be pretty uncontroversial as it simply lists the most standard choices for each topic. I don't think it's a very interesting or helpful list, and there are better choices for some topics (e.g. Axler is pretty bad for basic linear algebra, in my opinion), but this is the most basic and generic list you will get.

>> No.12251178

>>12246852
I used Schutz as an undergrad and it's pretty good as an intro but obviously not great if you actually want to specialize in GR.

Most of the weakness of the book comes from avoiding any real mathematical prerequisites, which is good for most physics undergrads but annoying if you actually know the math to do things properly.

>> No.12251184

>>12244481
Came here to post this

>> No.12251215
File: 107 KB, 1200x1893, the-divine-proportion.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12251215

>the most literary books on mathematics
Textbooks are useful and all, but pic related is a literary paean to mathematics.

>> No.12251273
File: 43 KB, 706x669, over-laughs.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12251273

>>12248979
don't think I didn't notice that last book

>> No.12251529

>>12245020
Spivak is definitely not “fail safe”.

>> No.12251559

>>12251529
it is if you're not a ,ya know, brainlet

>> No.12251585
File: 39 KB, 709x765, 1480448256730.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12251585

>tfw 30 year old boomer, won several math competitions in school but forgot fucking everything ever since

>> No.12251697

>>12248966
Read some philosophy, smol-brain

>> No.12252101

How much of the math is useful in terms of making one wiser? Looking at all these gigantic charts ITT I just can't shake the feeling that a sizable portions of mathematics is spent proving one of the billion of autistic theorems that do not lead to any expansion of the mind, or hold any positive interest to anyone who isn't a guy working as a math professor.

>> No.12252119

>>12252101
Plato would say that mathematics is fundamental to the cultivation of virtue, because it encourages sustained and focused thought on philosophical problems.

>> No.12253413

>>12243960
Calculus by Spivak is God tier writing

>> No.12253425

>>12251529
There are two calculus books of his. The one just called calculus is entry level.

>> No.12253466

>>12251184
came to this post here

>> No.12253567
File: 39 KB, 550x550, flat,550x550,075,f.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12253567

fellas, will it sensible to take maths on undergrad?
Maths interests me, but the problem is, all the hardcore mathematicians I've met neither can't write very well nor can verbally articulate two lines together. So I am pretty scared.

>> No.12253690

>>12253567
Pynchon was a mathematics student and as mentioned before Grothendieck and Poincare really knew how to turn a phrase.

>> No.12253700

>>12253690
Pynchon did not study mathematics academically. He studied engineering for a year and left