the subject. Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos. From Here to
Infinity - Ian Stewart. Shedding some light on the formulae normally associated ...
Suggested reading for aspiring mathematicians: This list is certainly not extensive and I in no way set myself up as any kind of expert on the subject. These are simply books which I have read whilst studying for my degree and which have been useful to me to a greater or lesser extent. I can't really remember how much I knew before leaving school; Mathematics over the past few years has rather merged together and has no particularly memorable waypoints! I hope to have gauged it reasonably enough for the target audience to understand the books; otherwise they will have to do what every other mathematician does and sit with the book in hand and Wikipedia open! Reading the books in this list will not improve your abilities as a mathematician; the only thing which will do that is textbooks and solving problems. With regard to interviews and mathematical development, at best these books will give you a ‘heads-up’ to the concepts you may encounter, while at worst they will simply deepen your appreciation for the subject. Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos From Here to Infinity - Ian Stewart Shedding some light on the formulae normally associated with mathematics, these books help the reader to understand the intricate links between the different areas of the subject. They provide an overview of a fair number of topics in sufficient depth that when the topics are encountered in lectures it is much easier to see how everything fits together. Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics - John Derbyshire A book which combines some complicated mathematics with historical background in order to lay out what the Riemann Hypothesis is, and exactly why it remains one of the greatest unsolved problems in mathematics today. The Cracking Codebook - Simon Singh A pop-sci look at the evolution of cryptography (making and breaking secret codes) throughout history which provides an interesting introduction to the idea of cryptanalysis. The most useful are the final two chapters, which look at the mathematics behind the security measures used in modern-day computing. The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey through the Great Proofs, Problems and Personalities - William Dunham Covers briefly a large number of topics, from the isoperimetric problem in classical mythology (if you had a collection of fences of given lengths, what is the greatest area you can enclose with them?) to some interesting social observations on mathematicians and the profession. An interesting and quite well-written book, but which offers little in terms of knowledge of the subject. 1089 and All That – A Journey into Mathematics - David Acheson A book which derives its title from the author's fascination with a particular numerical ‘magic’ trick. The book briefly touches on a number of topics including chaos theory and estimations for Pi and ℮. MA, MSc in Mathematics, University of Edinburgh.
These books, with the exception of Does God Play Dice? and The Cracking Codebook, are available in the School library.
