Abstract
(I) PROF. H. B. PHILLIPS believes that the differential calculus should be given to the student in college at the earliest possible moment, and that to accomplish this a short course in analytic geometry is essential. He has therefore written this text to supply a course that will equip the student for work in calculus and engineering, without burdening him with a mass of detail useful only to the student of mathematics for its own sake. The result is a very attractive little book. The author has picked out the easy and fruitful bits of his subject without concerning himself greatly whether the topics chosen are conventionally elementary or advanced. He gives us a book very different from the stock “analytical conies,” for the conic falls into its place among other curves, and is not studied under a microscope. For example, we have nothing about the equation of the tangent to a conic; presumably the author would take tangents after dy/dx. On the other hand, we have sections on periodic functions, empirical equations, parametric representation, co-ordinates in space, surfaces. The book is one that might very well be used with a class of intelligent non-specialists in their last two years at an English public school, at a stage when the function of mathematics is to broaden their outlook. It would serve equally well as an introductory course for a specialist.
(1) Analytic Geometry.
By Prof. H. B. Phillips. Pp. vii + 197. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London; Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 6s. 6d. net.
(2) Problems in the Calculus, with Formulas and Suggestions.
By Dr. D. B. Leib. Pp. xi + 224. (Boston, Mass., and London: Ginn and Co., 1915.) Price 4s. 6d.
(3) Mathematical Tables for Class-room Use.
By M. Merriman. Pp. 67. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price 2s. 6d. net.
(4) Rural Arithmetic.
By A. G. Ruston. Pp. xi + 431. (London: University Tutorial Press, Ltd., 1916.) Price 3s. 6d.
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G., C. (1) Analytic Geometry (2) Problems in the Calculus, with Formulas and Suggestions (3) Mathematical Tables for Class-room Use (4) Rural Arithmetic. Nature 98, 88–89 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/098088b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098088b0