This may be the handiest little
book on
mathematics since cuneiform and hieroglyphics went out of style--only much more useful (and delightful) than anything we (the human race) had then. It has all those formulas you thought you knew, until you needed them--and then Was it x2 or +2. Hmmm... Or, you are reading a science fiction novel, or watching a movie or TV show, and someone assumes you know about
time dilation (and the Twin Paradox that illustrates it), or the Doppler Effect, or how much mass converted to energy it took to level Hiroshima, say (for us History Channel fans). The formulas are here and you can stop pretending to understand, and really know. The cute little cartoons make this a lot less forbidding and intimidating than that algebra teacher in high school who had to impress you with his superiority, all the while being unable to explain anything that mattered to you--or me, either. But this book has it all. The formulas you thought you knew (and maybe wanted to check for sure); the ones you don''t, and need now and then; ones you''ve only heard of, rumoured by name, and even a few exotic ones your older brother might have teased you with. All of these are embedded in simple explanatory prose that makes you wonder why it seemed so hard before, when it''s really so obvious and simple. It covers not only algebra, but also
geometry of 2- and 3-dimensions, and more, by extension), trigonometry,
calculus, and
physics, simply, easily, and right. You''ll want to own this book, once you taste its joys.
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