"The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Mathematics" -- ??

Question

Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics??
I mean, anything like it, by anyone? I read that all the mathematics currently known could fit 100K books...and I'm wondering why there doesn't seem to be a nice little encyclopedia of math for the layman, much in the same style as the excellent "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language."
What a shame! Sure I can google things separately, but I'd have to first know that such-and-such even exists! Oh how I'd love to leisurely peruse such a handy math encyclopedia for layabout laymen on a lazy Sunday..

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics?? I mean, anything like ... exists! Oh how I'd love to leisurely peruse such a handy math encyclopedia for layabout laymen on a lazy Sunday..[/nq]
Lancelot Hogben's "Mathematics For The Million" is excellent. Also "Mathematician's Delight" by WW Sawyer which is an easier read but doesn't cover the range of topics.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Also "Mathematician's Delight" by WW Sawyer which is an easier read but doesn't cover the range of topics.[/nq]
That's the **same** range of topics.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics?? I mean, anything like ... exists! Oh how I'd love to leisurely peruse such a handy math encyclopedia for layabout laymen on a lazy Sunday..[/nq]
Math for millions by Hobgen (mentioned in the other posting) takes historical perspective and scratches various math topics, however it has nothing about current/modern math at all (as in 19th/20th century).

I don't think there's a laymen's book about math (covering most/all of the subjects, such a book doesn't exists for professionals either there's simply too much material), so most (popular science math) books will focus on particular aspects/topics.
Martin Gardner is a generally recommendable author.

A very interesting book about math (without requiring too much math knowledge) is:
Davis/Hersh: Descartes' Dream
It examines how math influences society.
Partially accessible to laymen as well are the real (and ever growing) math encyclopedias on the web:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Mathematics
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
and somewhat lesser accessible
http://eom.springer.de/
http://planetmath.org/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics?? I mean, anything like ... exists! Oh how I'd love to leisurely peruse such a handy math encyclopedia for layabout laymen on a lazy Sunday..[/nq]
Here's one:
http://www.amazon.com/CRC-Concise-Encyclopedia-Mathematics-Second/dp/1584883472 (Read the reviews.)
And there are several online encycs, e.g.:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
(See above.)
http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia
http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math/index/dict.html http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/prime/
Adrian

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics??... What a shame! Sure ... exists! Oh how I'd love to leisurely peruse such a handy math encyclopedia for layabout laymen on a lazy Sunday..[/nq]
You might look into "The World of Mathematics" edited b James R Newman. It's been published many times, last by Microsoft Press:

http://www.amazon.com/World-Mathematics-James-Roy-Newman/dp/1556151489

- A

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics?? I mean, anything like ... exists! Oh how I'd love to leisurely peruse such a handy math encyclopedia for layabout laymen on a lazy Sunday..[/nq]
Go to amazon.com
search: mathematics encyclopedia
get some answers...
CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Second Edition Van Nostrand Reinhold Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of Mathematics
Encyclopedia Of Mathematics (Science Encyclopedia)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics??[/nq]
A good place to ask would be in sci.math.
David Ames

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics??[/nq]
[nq:1]A good place to ask would be in sci.math. David Ames[/nq]
Ah, switching from rec.collecting.books to sci.math shows that the question was cross-posted.
David Ames

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, is there a math equivalent of the wonderful "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language" for mathematics?? I mean, anything like ... nice little encyclopedia of math for the layman, much in the same style as the excellent "Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language."[/nq]
The question is where to stop. By the time you're looking up "forcing" or "cohomology of groups" ayou aren't really a layman any more, but any encylopaedia would have to say something about those if it were not to be seriously misleading about what modern mathematics is.
There is a survey about the size you want from a Japanese institute, which was available in the 1990s - I can't find this on Google. It wasn't elementary and it wasn't cheap. There is a much larger (and very expensive) one from Springer and Kluwer.
Mathematics is one subject where you are better getting a bunch of surveys of specific areas. Some subjects are fairly well covered at an accessible level, like logic and differential geometry. But for even something as basic to much of the maths of the last century as measure theory, there is no way in except by getting a real honest- to-*** textbook, and for currently hot topics like quantum algebra, forget it.
Wikipedia is usually pretty hopeless. There are some useful and extended essays, but mostly you get a tangle of links with only trivial information at each node.

j-c

@

purr . demon . co . uk

Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland > tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free > fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts > mob 07800 739 557

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]A good place to ask would be in sci.math. David Ames[/nq]
[nq:1]Ah, switching from rec.collecting.books to sci.math shows that the question was cross-posted.[/nq]
If you weren't using Google you'd be able to see that from the newsgroup headers ...

"The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Mathematics" -- ??

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions