Product Description

Describing two cornerstones of mathematics, this basic textbook presents a unified approach to algebra and geometry. It covers the ideas of complex numbers, scalar and vector products, determinants, linear algebra, group theory, permutation groups, symmetry groups and aspects of geometry including groups of isometries, rotations, and spherical geometry. The book emphasises the interactions between topics, and each topic is constantly illustrated by using it to describe and discuss the others. Many ideas are developed gradually, with each aspect presented at a time when its importance becomes clearer. To aid in this, the text is divided into short chapters, each with exercises at the end. The related website features an HTML version of the book, extra text at higher and lower levels, and more exercises and examples. It also links to an electronic maths thesaurus, giving definitions, examples and links both to the book and to external sources.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83641 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Review
'The presentation is traditional, informal, and relaxed.' Zentralblatt MATH

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book
As a first year student at Cambridge I found this book completely invaluable. It rigorously covers lots of topics, giving clear step-by-step proofs and explanations. Excellent.
This is the one book that I would recommend that anyone in their first year of maths at university should buy.

Comprehensive, but not basic!
The book's preamble suggests that the text is a basic introduction to algebra and geometry. On a pre-calculus level I would not totally agree with this, since the text shows the links between the two topics in terms of group theory. This would seem to be a vital link, but does raise the level of the text away from what I would term a 'basic introduction'. However, that said, it appears to deal with the topics (and the links between them) in a comprehensive fashion.