Title: Not the best book on the subject
Review: This book is a short tour of the world of mathematics. Although some footnotes are adjourned up to 1994, the first edition of the book was published in 1956 (under a different title) and the style of the book is obviously antiquated. The author seems to be undecided between delivering an advanced excursus in most important mathematical application and presenting a collection of mathematical trivia-jokes-games. I don't think the mix works well. Besides, in line with this contradiction, sometimes the author dwells into explanations of elementary concepts, but then he takes for granted that the reader is familiar with integrates and calculus. Only to make things worse, some mathematical puzzles (perhaps the most interesting) are given without the solution. Although admitting that the writing style is intelligent and communicative and that it is rich in accurate references, I found many flaws in this book.
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