MAA's Top 10 Books of 2007

December 3, 2007

Still trying to decide what to get the math enthusiast in your life for the holidays? Let the MAA help. Below are 2007's most popular books published by the MAA, any of which is sure to delight its new owner. This collection of books covers a wide array of mathematical topics, so you'll have no problem finding something perfect for everyone on your list. These books and more are all available at the MAA Bookstore.


William Berlinghoff and Fernando Gouvêa
288 pp., hardcover, 2004

Where did math come from? Who thought up all those algebra symbols, and why? What's the story behind ? ...negative numbers? ...the metric system? ...quadratic equations? ...sine and cosine? The 25 independent sketches in Math through the Ages answer these questions and many others in an informal, easygoing style that's accessible to teachers, students, and anyone who is curious about the history of mathematical ideas.


J. Douglas Faires
320 pp., hardcover, 2006

A major aspect of mathematical training and its benefit to society is the ability to use logic to solve problems. The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) have been given for more than fifty years to millions of high school students. This book considers the basic ideas behind the solutions to the majority of these problems, and presents examples and exercises from past exams to illustrate the concepts. Anyone taking the AMC exams or helping students prepare for them will find many useful ideas here.


William Dunham
309 pp., hardcover, 2007

This book celebrates the 300th birthday of Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783), one of the brightest stars in the mathematical firmament. The book stands as a testimonial to a mathematician of unsurpassed insight, industry, and ingenuity—one who has been rightly called "the master of us all." The collected articles, aimed at a mathematically literate audience, address aspects of Euler's life and work, from the biographical to the historical to the mathematical. The oldest of these was written in 1872, and the most recent dates to 2006.

C. Edward Sandifer
380 pp., hardcover, 2006

The Early Mathematics of Leonhard Euler describes Euler’s early mathematical works: the 50 mathematical articles he wrote before he left St. Petersburg in 1741 to join the Academy of Frederick the Great in Berlin. It presents important results that we seldom realize are due to Euler: that mixed partial derivatives are equal, our f(x) notation, and the integrating factor in differential equations. The book provides some of the way mathematics is actually done. For example, Euler found partial results towards the Euler-Fermat theorem well before he discovered a proof of the Fermat theorem itself, and the Euler-Fermat version came 30 years later, beyond the scope of this book.


William Dunham
192 pp., paperbound, 1999

Written for the mathematically literate reader, this book provides a glimpse of Euler in action. Following an introductory biographical sketch are chapters describing his contributions to eight different topics—number theory, logarithms, infinite series, analytic number theory, complex variables, algebra, geometry, and combinatorics. Each chapter begins with a prologue to establish the historical context and then proceeds to a detailed consideration of one or more Eulerian theorems on the subject at hand. Each chapter concludes with an epilogue surveying subsequent developments or addressing related questions that remain unanswered to this day.


H. S. M. Coxeter and S. L. Greitzer
193 pp., paperbound, 1967

Among the many beautiful and nontrivial theorems in geometry found here are the theorems of Ceva, Menelaus, Pappus, Desargues, Pascal, and Brianchon. A nice proof is given of Morley's remarkable theorem on angle trisectors. The transformational point of view is emphasized: reflections, rotations, translations, similarities, inversions, and affine and projective transformations. Many fascinating properties of circles, triangles, quadrilaterals, and conics are developed.


Philip D. Straffin, Jr.
200 pp., paperbound, 1993

This important addition to the New Mathematical Library series pays careful attention to applications of game theory in a wide variety of disciplines. The applications are treated in considerable depth. The book assumes only high school algebra, yet gently builds to mathematical thinking of some sophistication. Game Theory and Strategy might serve as an introduction to both axiomatic mathematical thinking and the fundamental process of mathematical modelling. It gives insight into both the nature of pure mathematics, and the way in which mathematics can be applied to real problems.


Claudi Alsina and Roger Nelsen
190 pp., hardcover, 2006

Is it possible to make mathematical drawings that help to understand mathematical ideas, proofs and arguments? The authors of this book are convinced that the answer is yes and the objective of this book is to show how some visualization techniques may be employed to produce pictures that have both mathematical and pedagogical interest.


Edward Packel
192 pp., hardcover, 2006

The second edition of this book introduces and develops some of the important and beautiful elementary mathematics needed for rational analysis of various gambling and game activities. Most of the standard casino games (roulette, craps, blackjack, keno), some social games (backgammon, poker, bridge) and various other activities (state lotteries, horse racing, etc.) are treated in ways that bring out their mathematical aspects. The mathematics developed ranges from the predictable concepts of probability, expectation, and binomial coefficients to some less well-known ideas of elementary game theory.


David Bressoud
380 pp., hardcover, 2006

In the second edition of this MAA classic, exploration continues to be an essential component. More than 60 new exercises have been added, and the chapters on Infinite Summations, Differentiability and Continuity, and Convergence of Infinite Series have been reorganized to make it easier to identify the key ideas. A Radical Approach to Real Analysis is an introduction to real analysis, rooted in and informed by the historical issues that shaped its development. It can be used as a textbook, or as a resource for the instructor who prefers to teach a traditional course, or as a resource for the student who has been through a traditional course yet still does not understand what real analysis is about and why it was created.