Best math books?
- Thread starter IllBeBach
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pka
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There is absolutely no way to answer your question without knowing your background.
What do you already know? How firm is your background knowledge of basic mathematics.
Do you have a firm grasp of middle-school mathematics?
Steven G
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Which book to use really depends on how well you want to learn the material and even that starts at Calculus.
In my opinion for any course before calculus you can use any book. They will all be basically the same.
So for Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry and Pre Calculus if you randomly pick a book it will most probably be a good book.
If you really want to learn Calculus then you get the book by Thomas and Finney (believe it or not, do not get the Calculus book by Finney and Thomas). This book is out of print but you can get buy one online. It will be a deep book into Calculus. If you just want to learn Calculus well, again any Calculus book will suffice.
After Calculus is where you need to make a good decision on which book to use. Do you want to study applied math or pure math? Do you want to learn how to do proofs or just accept them (I feel ill just writing that). If you want to LEARN linear algebra, then use the book by Hoffman/Kunze. A good lower level linear algebra proof text is by Kohlman (or is it Kolman). If you want applied then (I think) Anton is good. There is another applied linear algebra author for applied but I forget his name.
In my opinion for any course before calculus you can use any book. They will all be basically the same.
So for Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry and Pre Calculus if you randomly pick a book it will most probably be a good book.
If you really want to learn Calculus then you get the book by Thomas and Finney (believe it or not, do not get the Calculus book by Finney and Thomas). This book is out of print but you can get buy one online. It will be a deep book into Calculus. If you just want to learn Calculus well, again any Calculus book will suffice.
After Calculus is where you need to make a good decision on which book to use. Do you want to study applied math or pure math? Do you want to learn how to do proofs or just accept them (I feel ill just writing that). If you want to LEARN linear algebra, then use the book by Hoffman/Kunze. A good lower level linear algebra proof text is by Kohlman (or is it Kolman). If you want applied then (I think) Anton is good. There is another applied linear algebra author for applied but I forget his name.
D
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Look at the publications in Schaum outline publications. Those have plethora of worked out examples and problems to solve with answers. However, in my opinion, these are "review" books.
pka
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Are you sure that you are calculus ready? If you have sound in basic secondary school mathematics (geomentry, algebra, & basic trig) then here is a good pre-calculus: Functions and Graphs by Earl Swokowski.
pka
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Well, some fifty years ago I taught secondary algebra, (only one year) thus I can be no use to you there.