Some things to read and look at
I am attempting to collect a list here of resources for people who
just want to read more about mathematics because they think it's
interesting. This list is very personal, not representative of any
consensus at all, and could probably be significantly improved. At the
moment I don't have any books on the list because alot of people in
southern Africa, at least, won't find the books I would recommend in
their local libraries, but if you're looking at this then you do have
access to the internet to some extent. If anyone has any
recommendations they would like to forward to me, please do so. My
email address is david.gay@uct.ac.za.
My list:
-
The Mathematics Digest
, operating out of our very own UCT mathematics department. This
is a magazine all about mathematics written specifically for high
school learners in southern Africa.
- Daryl Cooper's collection of math
puzzles. (More than anything else, mathematics is about solving
problems, and this is a wonderful collection of challenging problems
for you to solve.)
- The Mathematical Association of America's online mathematics
columns. These are short, readable articles for the general public
on hot topics in modern mathematics.
- The American Mathematical Society's monthly feature column ``designed
for those who have already discovered the joys of mathematics as well
as for those who may be uncomfortable with mathematics''. Another nice
collection of short, readable articles.
- Wikipedia's main entry on mathematics is
quite well-written and can lead you in many different directions and
ends with a nice list of other useful websites. This also has more
history of mathematics than any of the other websites above.
- The
Geometry Junkyard . For all of you who love geometry.
- The content
here is really not aimed at the general public, but the pictures
are beautiful and, even if you don't understand them, might serve to
entice you to learn more about low-dimensional topology.