Mathematics Books

As a Southerner and amateur genealogist, I have a love of history, especially of the Civil War. I have many Confederate veterans in my ancestry. So I was interested in what this book was about. Was it a Civil War novel or not?

It wasn't and yet it was. This novel is set in modern time but South Carolinians are faced with a tyrannical federal govt just like they did in the first to middle part of the 1800's. When the federal government issues a demand, states have little recourse and any disagreement is met with overwhelming force. States have no ability to protect themselves in these days. We are outgunned in every way and must submit. This was not what was intended by the founding fathers and this is exactly why The War was fought in 1861-65.

During SC Governor Jim Hodges' tenure the federal government decided to ship nuclear waste through the state to the Savannah River site. He tried to stop it and even had plans to stop the shipment with state police sent along the highway. But he capitulated. I don't know why. I'm sure this incident was the catalyst for this novel.

Barnett did a wonderful job developing this story and it was a very believable outcome. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it to adults. It's one I want to pass around to all my friends.

The only reservations I had were the profanity, the one explicit sex scene and the drunkenness that was portrayed as normal.

Barnett has written a great thriller. His writing is wonderful so the reader is kept involved and spell-bound. His character development is excellent. The story is believable and scary. It is a thought provoking book considering the terrorism in the world today. Barnett seems to have researched his book well, thus adding to the realism. Well done!

A mix of John Grisham and Tom Clancy in style, Barnett brings to the fore a terrifying (but VERY real) scenario where the Federal government abuses its power and tramples the rights of state to protect its citizens.

In this case, the Feds are shipping spent nuclear fuel rods and plutonium from North Carolina through South Carolina with disasterour consequences because of the arrogance of two men in the highest levels of government.

The arragance of the two men drives the issue to the point where the entire union is at risk and a nuclear war in North America seems imminent.

Absolutely breathtaking.

My mother, (Stan's aunt), insisted that I read A Single Star. Knowing Stan as a lover of all things South Carolinian, I presumed " A Single Star" would be a history of the state, and/or a re-visiting of it's 19th century efforts to rethink the US Constitution. I do remember any number of conversations on the subject of "northern aggression" with the author when we were a bit younger.
What a surprise I had in store (Mom usually gives pretty good advice). This book is a page turner. The characters are well developed, the descriptions of place and time extraordinary, and the story line all too haunting. Even if I weren't his cousin I would highly recommend "A Single Star" to all lovers of the modern day thriller. Well done Stan, please continue!

The first part of this book, the first novel by Charleston, SC attorney, Stan Barnett, is like a wrap around porch under a live oak to those of us who live in the South, especially, South Carolina. Barnett deftly sends the reader on a measured... Southern journey through some of the most beautiful locations in the state. From the midlands, to the Pee Dee, to the lowcountry, you get a real sense of what life is like here.

I was halfway through the book and assumed that I knew exactly where it was going when it took a turn that few authors would have had the courage to attempt. And it works. While I took the first half of the book at a leisurely, yet enjoyable pace, after "the event" (wouldn't want to ruin the surprise), I flew through the remaining pages.

If you're from the South or D.C., or simply enjoy a gutsy yarn that doesn't pull any punches, pick up A Single Star. You'll be glad you did.

Seriously, I was in a rut when it came to reading, and this book popped me right out of that rut. This book is an inspirational adventure of Louis Armstrong's preparation and trip across the Atlantic ocean in the Spirit of St. Louis plane.

Spoiler alert!! He makes it across the ocean.

I highly recommend it though, an excellent accounting of the true story, and the book includes technical details of the plane, routes (Atlantic trip, plus touring), and the adventure in general. Good pictures too. Smithsonian Institution, here I come!

I think the book is wonderful. I wanted to attain a better sense of Charles A Lindbergh and what better
way then to read something he wrote. He is a good writer and his character comes through. It is also very
enterntaining and down to the practically of having real substance of history in the book. I am greatful to have read it and attained a glimps of a cherished individual in our aviation history.

Great account of an adventure. Includes all the early stages, including conception, financing, building, testing, and monitoring the competition. Especially relevant these days with all the X prize comparisons.

The writing of the actual flight is exhaustive, and sprinkled with autobiographical anecdotes to give context and color. His accounts of growing up on a Minnesota farm surely add to the American mythos of self-determination. And his days spent learning to fly through barnstorming and the Army are notable for being enchanting, yet completely straightforward and accurate.

Lindbergh says accuracy is one of his major aims. This adds to the substance of the book, since he examines his mistakes at least as much as his successes. The writing sometimes waxes poetic, as when he says "The dull blade of skill is sharpened on the stone of experience."

Overall, this is a valuable book on many levels. For the historical record of a groundbreaking flight. For the description of the early days of flight, and the adventure and pioneering spirit it embodied. And for the tale of a man who conceived a great project, found the friendly cooperation of others to help him achieve it, worked through many obstacles and setbacks to prepare for it, and then finally executed it well, despite his own human imperfections and mistakes along the way.

Lindbergh took some risks with this book. He wrote it out first person, present tense. (A big "no no".) And he broke up the storyline with frequent flashbacks. Somehow it all works anyway, in spite of or because of these risks.

But, then again, Lindbergh was a risk taker. He put his life on the line with his Paris flight and succeeded gloriously. He does the same thing here, in the literary world, winning the Pulitzer prize.

We should all stop to reflect a moment on how great a coup this was. And how improbable. Lindbergh published this book in the decade following his ill-fated attempt to prevent America's entry into World War II. In many ways his star had fallen with the American public, politically and otherwise. Yet, he was able to resurrect himself through this first-hand story of his great experimental flight. You can't keep a good man (or woman) down.

My favorite part of this book is the section where he refers to his metaphysical experiences during his flight over the Atlantic. He recounts these experiences in more depth in Autobiography of Values, but it is here that they first see the light of day.

This is an enthralling saga of a great moment in the history of aviation, told by the flier himself. It is a unique contribution to world literature, and as such, scarcely needs me to recommend it. Yet, I do so, unreservedly.

Richard Salva--author of Soul Journey from Lincoln to Lindbergh [UNABRIDGED]

Lindbergh's flight solo New York to Paris is still hard to repeat with a small, prop driven, aircraft. It is hard to summarize or constuct a methaphor to measure the impact of Lindbergh's historic flight in today's setting, it was such a great leap forward for mankind.

The flight inspired my father, 14 years old and living on a farm in Wisconsin in 1927, to become a graduate aerospace engineer, and later to work on the design of the P-38, X-15, and the Apollo capsule, among others, many of which he could not even tell me about. It had similar effects and results for thousands of others.

This book is well written and documents not only the flight, but the life of Lindbergh, and the logistics of pulling off this incredible event. After reading this book, I came to the opinion that the planning and logistics (including fundraising and sponsorship) may have been more difficult than the actual flight. We owe much for this leap forward to a group of individuals from St. Louis, who told Lindbergh, "you worry about the design, building, and flying of the aircraft, we will take care of the money". Reading about this portion of the effort alone, provides much food for thought about current corporate management and government projects. A case study in delegation! I found this book interesting, fascinating, well written, and inspiring. The event and the book are timeless. Reading it makes you realize the difference one person can make when perseverance is applied in a large dose.

It is a great book that is truly pertinent to the topic it relates to and doesn't go off on a tangent. If you are looking for a book that is related to crime scene techniques then this is a book for you.

This is a fine book which will help me in my studies of forensic analysis.

Once again, Mr. Fisher has kept us updated with the ever changing world of forensic science and the techniques of crime scene investigation, in this seventh edition. The book encompasses current information in an intelligent and organized manner with the methodology to address, not only the elements of the investigation but also the interaction of the personnel involved.
This in depth text should be on every forensic investigator's bookshelf.

For all of those who are interested in either becoming Crime Scene Investigators, or increasing their knowledge THIS is the ULTIMATE book to get. It's the leading textbook, handbook, bible, guide, whatever word you wish to use and the author "Barry Fisher" has a way with words that leaves you with no doubt about his knowledge and experience. It's one of those books that I couldn't put down and can learn from and remember what I'm reading. An EXCELLENT study guide.

Fisher provides the absolute, hands-down best text out there for basic crime scene work. This is the one that is in everyone's bookshelf - we even keep all our old editions! When I began working in crime scene investigations, this was my 'go-to' reference, and several years later, I still read through it every once in a while to keep fresh. I teach part time, and this was the book my co-instructor and I suggested that we use for our basic and advanced crime scene classes - thank goodness it's our new text! I can't wait to share Fisher with our students. Invaluable book.

As a living relative of other primates on the planet earth, we human beings share many attributes with chimpanzees and other simians. But there are several key physical attributes that we humans have developed that our ape relatives have not, and author Chip Walter has boiled these down to several rather surprising differences. If not for the development of simple, and often overlooked, "little" attributes like our big toes or our unique thumbs, we would likely have either gone extinct as a species or not have evolved to the level that we have today.

In a fresh, vibrant new way, author Chip Walter illustrates how the evolution and development of such a seemingly insignificant physical feature as our big toe makes standing erect and walking possible from a purely engineering standpoint. Without our big toes, we could not stand for long periods, or walk through the park, or run like we do. We would undoubtedly be a very different animal without it and life as we know it would be radically different as well.

The story that Chip Walter reveals is a fascinating and revealing one, and puts a new twist on the evolutionary story of humankind that is fresh and interesting for readers of all ages. The reader will find him or herself speeding through one easy-to-follow chapter after another in "Thumbs, Toes, and Tears" almost unaware of the vast array of technical and scientific research that they are absorbing. It's one thing to throw a lot of heavy scientific information at the audience, but quite another challenge to make a balance between readability for a general mass-market audience and still be a valuable and insightful took for knowledge and learning - all the while maintaining a high degree of enjoyability and engagement. Author Chip Walter has a real knack for making the scientifically-informative engaging for all of us.

For lack of a better word, this unique little book is simply "cool". In my mind, the mark of a "good" book is one that will stick with the reader upon completion. I like a book that makes you continue to think about what you just read hours or even days after putting the book down, discussing things you read with family, friends, and coworkers. You'll likely find yourself looking at your reflection in the mirror after reading "Thumbs, Toes, and Tears" and ponder all the wonderful things that make us, as human beings, so unique in this world. To me, that's a great book!

"Thumbs, Toes, and Tears" is a suitable and enlightening read for teens, young adults, and adults of all ages.

Some very smart folks have been thinking deep thoughts about human evolution, and Walter's book appears (to this lay person) to chronicle the latest and greatest theories of how we became who and what we are. I experienced repeated "wow" moments during my reading of this book, because the ideas presented (elegantly by Walter) concerning the development of the human body, brain, character, culture, etc. are not only clever, insightful and plausibly correct, but also profound, beautiful, and mind-blowing.

Then buy this incredible book by Chip Walter because it's the real SECRET! Very few people have time to really BE SMART. (why do you think Cliff Notes were invented) Most of us just want other people to THINK WE'RE SMART! Women want men who sound and look smart (get with it, why do think Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller). Being smart does not mean you have to be boring or talk too much. Arm yourself with this witty knowlege that is anything but boring. Be prepared to drop little juicy tidbits of knowlege into every conversation. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT get it at the library, or borrow it. You need to have this ready to read before speed dating, before an impromtu opportunity to chat up the boss on the elevator and not sound like a blithering idiot. You need this book, looking a bit beat up, under your arm at the coffee shop. That gorgeous hunk,or babe, in line behind you is just looking for a reason to start a conversation with you and this is it! You will be armed with dazzling bits of new trivia that is both scintillating and clever. People will be impressed, your self esteem with go up (without having to pay for a $10,000.00 seminar in Fiji). You will get the dates, the pay raise, and your mom will be so proud of you! What are you waiting for, everyone is looking for the SECRET and pssssst, it's right here babe.

How do toes rate a spot in the title? As Chip Walker says "The same big toe made thumbs - and the tools they fashioned - possible, which led to the evolution of language, arguably the greatest tool of all." Mind you, he said this after spending 200 pages justifying it.

The big toes of apes are toward the side, rather like thumbs, and are used for grasping branches while climbing. Humans' big toes are in the front and support our striding walk. As Walter points out, this doesn't necessarily involve major genetic change; a small change in a regulatory gene, such as a Hox gene, could have made most of the difference.

Once our ancestors were walking upright, their hands were free to make and use tools, to carry food and tools, and to gesture to others while walking. This new posture led to changes in the shape of the neck. This increased the range of vocal sounds our ancestors could make. After further evolution, each of us is born with the capacity to make all of the sounds in all of human language.

Walter brings up the hypothesis that language began with gestures and only later was connected with speech. This may sound far-fetched to some, but humans communicate with gestures and speech together, so it would have been easy for gesture-language to give rise to speech-language.

From toes to speech covers the first half of the book. This is in 3 sections: "Toes", "Thumbs", and "Pharynx". Then come "Laughter", "Tears", and "The Language of Lips". 4 of these are obvious, but "Pharynx" deals with language and with the nature of consciousness, and "Lips" covers a wide range of topics, including kissing, pheromones, and why women prefer big, strong men.
There is also a short, mostly speculative section about current topics, such as why men are better at math and women at language.

There is much here that is well established, but there is also much that is hypothetical or even speculative. For example, the importance of big toes for upright walking is well established, while the question of whether men are better at math and women at language is still being debated. Fortunately, Walter points out the uncertainties frequently. We read "says", "thinks", "believes" and so on. Too often, science writers report unverified results and researchers' interpretations as if they were established facts. Walter lets a few such items slip by, but he's generally more careful.

Thumbs, Toes, and Tears covers a lot of territory that doesn't leave a lot of room for in-depth analysis. The goal is for the reader to see that all the many pieces fit together into one picture. We know the pieces must because WE are the picture. Walter himself describes the main fun of the book: "I do hope that the science in the book can help curious mainstream readers learn something interesting and thought-provoking about themselves. I want them to have those `Ah-ha' moments.' (Walter, W.J., Jr., personal communication.) I had several of those moments myself, and I am a fairly advanced reader.

There is a final chapter, "Cyber sapiens", about our species' bionic future, which should stimulate a lot of thinking. Walter doesn't go into the area I find more exciting: genetic engineering. For a few thousand years men have been genetically modifying crops, livestock, and pets using techniques that have been in nature for hundreds of million years. Now a few labs are working out how to create new genes. There's not much to say yet, but it's worth thinking about how both bionics and genetic engineering will affect society. Will the new technology be available, or will the super-rich make of their descendants a new Master Race of ubermenschen?

It is not a criticism to say that much of the material is uncertain; it is one of the strengths of the book. Science starts with speculation, with scientists asking questions. Questions lead to testable hypotheses and testing sorts out the ideas that work from those that don't. Eventually there is solid, established theory. Walter gives a look at the beginnings of a science of the human mind. perhaps some of the younger readers will be inspired to join this quest.

"Thumbs, Toes and Tears" surveys six general traits the author, Chip Walter, consideres uniquely human - a big toe, opposable thumb, larynx for speech plus three acts deeply intertwined with our past - laughing, crying and kissing. Included in the discussions are more mysterious aspects - our unique memory system, our intuitiveness, our ability to communicate by all sorts of visual and sensory systems and consciousness, that dark veil that tells us what we thing without telling us who we are.

Beyond the prose, examples, humor, facts and insights the reader is still startled to learn just how much we have discovered about ourselves and our brains - the real hero of the story. Each of these human attributes is presented with an overview, background and evolutionary history of the trait from its origins to modern times. What fascinates repeatedly are the ways in which one area overlaps or affects the next. Big toes lead to upright posture that in turns frees our hands for such things as tool making and unconscious movements that express our thoughts. Bipedalism allowed the voice box to straighten and produce noises that developed into language.

Thumbs, for example, were integral for tool-making. This stimulated the brain and accelerated the growth of communication. The author considers language the most important skill we acquired since it created culture. As profound as these are to our current current state, the last three are just as intrinsic. Can one imagine a culture without crying, laughter or kissing? We would think it alien and non-human.

Walter was at times too quick to introduce purpose into evolution. There is no purpose - women did not (as he assert) have kids to "help the race". They had no idea about a "human race" much less thought that having children would preserve it. In the same way, the toe did not develop for walking (how could "it" know?) - it was the end result of a series of complex forces that reinforced each other. The book is chock full of interesting facts presented in terms most laymen can comprehend. The differences between the male and female brain explained our actions - why men excel at Math and females in English.

The author points our repeatedly that we are the fusion of both ancient, evolutionary forces that harken back millions of years and modern ones created by our culture at an ever-accelerating pace. In this sense, the author asserts we are more than our genes, greater than the mere end product of a long chain of chance changes over time. The final chapter, CYBER SAPIENTS, suggests that for the first time, humans will not only aid but jumpstart evolution. The former mechanism of evolution - glacially slow, minute changes over eons will be replaced by tinkering with DNA - instant evolution. Will we replace ourselves with robots? Does evolution require biology? What does it mean to be human when one cannot tell the difference between a machine and a "person"? Great book

I first read this book in sixth grade, and was completely blown away by it. It inspired me to become a physicist. Ten years later, I completed my S.B. in physics at MIT. Eighteen years later, I completed my Ph.D. in physics at Berkeley. Today, almost 40 years later, I am a physicist in Silicon Valley. Physics still enthralls me. I occasionally reread this book, and it still inspires me. Thank you, Albert Einstein and Lincoln Barnett!

Who would believe that a book on the Theory of Relativity could be written for the masses? Well it was, and this is it. The concepts that the book conveys are mind boggling, yet quite understandable at the same time. You'll never view space, time and the world around you the same again. It's a quick read, but as you'll learn, time is relative.

Suppose all matter in the universe is expanding at a uniform rate and that "gravity" doesn't exist. Also imagine standing atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa and releasing two cannon balls. One weighs one ounce and the other ten pounds. Because the earth is rushing up to meet the balls, both seem to fall to the ground at the same rate. A cannon ball fired into the air seems to follow a curved trajectory back to the earth as the ground rushes up to meet it. A comet passing close to the earth seems to be "attracted" to the earth as we are pushed upwards towards it. Einstein says "gravity" is the effect on the path of a moving object caused by distortions in the geometric structure of the space-time continuum caused by mass. But space is "nothing," so how can "nothing" be distorted? Could the earth and all matter be expanding uniformly and unnoticed by us? Could this expansion be the real cause of what we call "gravity" and not the distortion of "nothing"?

This problem, somewhat simplified here, has been bothering me since I first read this book some forty years ago; if anybody can help enlighten me on this, I'd be glad to hear from you!

Mr. Barnett, a journalist, crossed over into the arena of science, a subject that he had not studied in college. And to the world's amazement, he captured on paper a clear and easy to read explanation of the genius and elegance of Dr. Einstein's theories concerning the very small (quanta) and the very large (space and time).

I feel that this book is a must for any home library. If you are experienced in physics, this book is extremely interesting because it delves deaply into the philosophy that brought Dr. Einstein to his great accomplishments. For those that have little knowledge of relativity, the universe, and quantum matters it offers a great introduction with a minimum of complex math. A simple way to understand how Dr. Einstein changed the entire universe. I have studied Albert for years. This is the first time I have read anything that gave me such an insight to his personality and thought processes. HONESTLY, the best book I have ever read.

As a physics fanatic and student, I believe this to be one of the better books out there. I've purchased six mechanics books and I've worked out almost every problem in each; therefore, my review is well grounded.

Another decent book which gives a different mathematical perspective is Taylor's Classical Mechanics.

Analytical Dynamics: A New Approach by Firdaus E. Udwadia and Robert E. Kalaba is also well written.

In comparison, each one has its own strengths. However, if you must choose only one, Taylor's would be the one I recommend. Nevertheless, anyone of these three would be a good choice.

Good luck,
Daniel

The most lucid and pedagogical presentation concerning the calculus of variations applied in mechanics. The developments are put in a historical context and the intrinsic connections with Riemannian geometry are explained. Simply, a must-have for everyone interested in really understanding the principles of mechanics.

From organization, to prose, to content, to price, this is the best book on the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formulation of Classical Mechanics. I just wish this book treated more subjects! The numbered list organization with pithy summaries really works for me. The thought provoking and mathematically fluent prose style is a joy to experience. The author is clearly a master of Einsteinian Relativity, Classical Physics, Differential Geometry, and function analysis. In fact I seem to recall him writing some other books along those lines. Lanczos is a real treat to read. I have read parts of over a dozen different books on Intermediate/Advanced Classical Mechanics and the things the Lanczos covers are just supperb. As a standalone text, it may not be the best choice, but when accompanied by Arya or Hand and Finch it is very enriching. FLuent and cohesive are the words that come to mind when describing this work. This book is especially good for someone who knows a good deal of math and would like to be introduced to classical mathematical physics.

I heartily recommend Lanczos's masterpiece!

I've read this gem and done most of the evercises in about 3 months. Before that legendary book I'd had the usual crappy course in Classical Mechanics based on Goldstein. The bottom line is the book will show you a lot of advanced material and unfamiliar manipulations. On the other hand there are sometimes statements lacking proof or more detailed lucid explanation. The book is appropriate for readers that already know what action is, totall beginners will be too shocked by the new concepts and won't be able to pick up the important nuances revealed by Lanczos.

Lanczos work clarified some of the concepts in which my CM course failed:
- the important difference in treating holonomic and nonholonomic constraints
- exact constraints are mathematical idealization of infinitely rigid constraint forces
- Lagrange multipliers for functionals (actions) not only functions
- the logical thread virtual work -> d'Alembert -> Hamilton's principle
- the connection between the action in configuration space and in phase space

The book introduced me to topics not covered by the course, which was my initial goal:
- elimination of ignorable variables in L or H formulation
- canonical transformations, definition and importance
- generating function of canonical transformation
- test for canonicity of transformation using Poisson brackets
- integral invariants of canonical transformations
- Hamilton's principal function
- Hamilton-Jackobi equation and analogy with optical wave surfaces
- separation of variables in H-J equation
- action-angle variables for separable periodic systems
- evolution of the system as a sequence of canonical transformation
- introducing geometry and geodesics in phase space

The reading definitely increased my freedom in manipulating the variational problem into equivalent variational problem. Examples of the two most weird for me manipulations are in the appendices. In the first appendix the Hamiltonian formulation is derived from the Lagrangian by introducing new variables, constraints and corresponding Lagrange multipliers, and then eliminating the variables. In appendix II, the most popular cases of Noether's theorem are derived by introducing new field variables in the action - I had no idea that was allowed. Very interesting was the idea that the world line of the system in configuration space can be parametrized with arbitrary parameter and the time becomes a function of that parameter that is varied together with the other generalized coordinates. Such variation is normal for GR but I've never seen it done in non-relativistic mechanics. EDIT: Sept 2008. Recently I've found a textbook that clearly explains some of the fuzzy examples in Lanczos like varying the time: "Analytical Mechanics for Relativity and Quantum Mechanics" by Oliver Johns.

Some of the other reviews described the book as 'lucid'. I find that eggagerated - although the book shows lots of unfamiliar manipulations, sometimes proofs of validity or the necessary more detailed conceptual or calculational explanations are lacking. An example is the inclusion, all of a sudden, of the time as variable to be varied - where is the proof one is allowed to do that? In another case, the book tells you that by nullifying the boundary term when varying the action, one gets 'natural' boundary conditions for the Euler-Lagrange diff. equations. I failed to see how the physics of the problem would demand exactly those boundary conditions. Where the analogy between mechanics and optics was discussed, the book creates the impression it derived the Fermat's principle but in reality it simply proved that the path following the gradient of of constant surfaces is shortest between two points. So there is a certain gegree of fuzziness on calculational level (lacking proofs of validity) or conceptual level (underexplained concepts and relations).

I liked the the abundance of historical notes. You will learn that there are several formulations of the least action principle - Euler and Lagrange version, Jackobi version and Hamilton version. Each subsection has a small summary and there are a few problems per section to illustrate the main ideas but not enough for exercises.

There are two chapters that I think appeared in later editions and are too sketchy compared to the book core:

Chapter 9 discusses special relativity where you can see that guessing the relativistic Lagrangian on general grounds of Lorentz invariance gives almost effortlessly the relativistic dynamics without the usual gedanken experiments. At the end, Lanczos dives a little into GR using the Schwartzchild metric to derive orbits, bending of light rays and gravitational redshift around spherical body.

Chapter 11 gives a short presentation of fluid mechanics (a little unclear derivation, in Lagrange and Euler coordinates), elasticity, and electromagnetism. Noether's principle is used to derive the canonical and the symmetric energy momentum tensor. I haven't seen a crystal clear derivation of Noether anywhere and Lancsoz is not an exception. The problem is as usual ommiting what exactly is being transformed and why is that allowed.

If you ask 10 PhD scientists: "Why is Schrodinger's Equation complex?" (contains the square-root of minus one), 9 out of 10 won't be able to give you the correct answer.

It has little to do with taking the root of negative numbers. After reading Lanczos you will know it has do with "space" and what is a proper physical law. (Now you have to read the book to parse this sentence. Good.)

This is one of many wonderful insights Lanczos provides; with humor, wonder and crystal clarity. This is not a 'text book' on mechanics, you will get more out of it if you are familiar with the subject. He gives you understanding, not technique.

It is as if you can hum a few tunes. Reading Lanczos is experiencing the entire opera for the first time. Now you know the full story, how each aria is a part of the fabric; how each fits in the situation, the motivation behind it. The tunes you liked become richer, more profound, they are connected. The next time you sing you fancy you are a Caruso, a Puccini.

It is so rare to encounter a master who is also a gifted writer.

Some reviewers compare Lanczos to Feynman's Lectures, I agree partly. Lanczos is more literate and much more humble. Feynman is so busy being the genius from Brooklyn that his exposition is choppy and uneven. Lanczos is a better organizer and writer.

This is a book that parents should buy for their adolescent children (until it becomes compulsory reading at school). It provides both the entertainment of tales and the much needed ability to reason.

Solving the riddles set forth by the author is one of the best investment of their time the readers can do. It will repay many times whatever line of work they end up embarking on. It is also fun.

The beauty of this book that the problems in it do not require any special knowledge. It can almost equally be tackled by old and young. I was 11 or so when I read this book and was able to enjoy many problems ... I still enjoy them when I am 31. Please, reprint the book!

At the time this book was written, Raymond Smullyan was one of the world's leading experts on Godel's Incompleteness Theorems -- some of the deepest mathematical results of the 20th century.

This book is actually a gentle intro to these topics, and the most amazing part of it is that Dr. Smullyan keeps the level suitable for children.

That does NOT mean this book is not suitable for adults. It is extremely entertaining no matter what your age is.

The book is mostly a progression of logical conundrums. You are started out on the island of knights and knaves. These two types of people are visually indistinguishable, but knights always tell the truth while knaves always lie.

You are then presented with various scenarios where the objective is for you to ask one question from which you obtain some meaningful information without knowing whether or not the person you are asking is a knight or a knave. The classic example is that you meet two people one of whom is a knight and one of whom is knave. Your objective? Ask one of them one question that allows you to determine which one is the knight and which one is the knave. Answer? "If I were to ask your friend if he was a knight, would he say 'Yes'" A knight will always answer this question "Yes" and a knave "No". If you can follow the logic through to conclude this, you are on your way!!

The situations through the book grow more complex. For example, later you find yourself on a similar island where the natives no longer speak English. They words for yes and no are "boo" and "da". The problem is, you don't know which is which!

At the end of the book, you are presented with the ultimate level of complexity where not only do half the people always lie and half tell the truth, and not only do they use the words "boo" and "da" for yes and no (without you knowing which is which), but half of the population is also insane which means that whatever is true, they BELIEVE the opposite. So an insane liar always inadvertantly tells the truth because what they believe is false...and then they lie about it.

Sound hard?

Yeah, that's the point.

Nonetheless, the book is a nice progression, and you definitely get better and better and following the logic through and thinking in these terms, which makes this book GREAT mental exercise! Some of the best I have found, in fact.

One final comment, John Houston's review is very wrong on the point of implication: an implication of the form a->b, is ALWAYS true when a is false. This is elementary logic -- a subject in which Dr. Smullyan was a world renowned expert.

I have no doubt that Dr. Houston is a very knowledgeable physicist, but unfortunately -- in spite of his apparently strong feelings to the contrary -- this has not prepared him to comment competently on formal logic.

This book is a chockful of puzzles and riddles, humorous and bizarre. The author (Raymond Smullyan) uses these puzzles to introduce formal logic in a particularly fun and interesting way. This book also illustrates the unique sense of humor many mathematicians. He characterizes a drunken mathematician as one who says, "I can prove anyshing!"

Added January 2003

I used some questions from this book in my college physics class last fall (2002). I noticed a couple problems with the book and what it tries to present. The book is still fun and amusing, but not fully accurate. Consequently, I reduce my rating to a four.

I believe that logic is nothing more than reading (or hearing) and comprehending sentences, and identifying whether sentences are true or false. This book does an excellent job of training the reader to read what he reads. This is something the modern reader needs desperately -- witness the success of persons like Hugh Ross in persuading people that the Bible says what the Bible manifestly does not say.

However, the book emphasizes something that is very wrong: the claim that "A false statement implies anything" and its logical equivalent, "Anything implies a true statement."

"If we hadn't stopped and turned back, we would have been caught in an avalanche" would be just as true (after stopping and turning back) on the hottest summer day in the desert as on a stormy snowy day in the mountains in winter. Likewise, "If Al Gore had been allowed to take office as President, 9/11 would have not occurred" and "If Al Gore had been allowed to take office as President, 9/11 would have occurred" would both be equally true without considering what might have happened had Gore been President.

If "a false statement implies anything," then we cannot discuss intelligently what might have happened if we'd made different choices.

The book does prove that "If 2 + 2 = 5 then I am the Pope." It is possible that false statements of a certain type are guarranteed to imply anything.

I would like to see this book back in print. Most of it is excellent and on target in logic. Perhaps a second edition could be published, adjusting its take on these issues.

A true delight to read, although the one reviewers comments (John Morrison from Houston) brought to mind the truth of Pope's comment,"A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again." As you read this book hopefully your brain will be stimulated to ask questions AND to dig deeper to learn ther answers. Smullyan is NOT wrong when he says that a false hypothesis yields a true conditional statement. I haven't read the book in decades, so I can't comment on whether or not Smullyan explicits says this, but conditional statements do not express causal relations (I can understand how a physicist would think this.)
Anyhow, this is a great book for young children with inquisitive minds and even for old children who think they know it all.

MB

This book demolishes absurd myths about mathematicians, that they are dull in personality, possess mechanistic minds and exhibit little in the manner of emotion. Alfred Tarski was one of the greatest mathematical minds of the twentieth century and in many ways he was also a demanding scoundrel. He openly had extra-marital affairs, even to the point where he would bring the women home to meet his wife Maria. She had to have been one of the most tolerant and understanding of souls. When Maria finally left him, it had as much to do with his domestic demands as to his sexual (mis)adventures.
Not only was Tarski fortunate in his choice of mate, he was also very lucky to have lived when he did. In the modern academic world, his constant sexual advances to his female students would have gotten him fired very quickly, which brings up another irony. In the middle of the twentieth century, the expression of homosexuality was grounds for termination and ridicule, the authors are very clear about the activities of some of the gay friends of Tarski. One was even robbed once and then murdered later as a consequence of being gay. Yet, Tarski was free to seduce females with impunity, as he made no secret of his actions. At the start of the twenty-first century, expressing homosexuality is accepted and any sexual activity between a professor and student is grounds for termination.
The authors have used an effective structure in creating this book. The passages containing the heavy mathematics have chapter headings called interludes and the biographical sections are given specific titles. This allows the reader with little experience in logic to avoid the heavy mental lifting.
Alfred Tarski was a genius and very lucky in many ways, most specifically in his choice of wife. He also lived at a time when sex with your students was at least a tolerated perk of being a professor. Arrogant, cranky, opinionated and adored, he cut a swath through the mathematical community that will keep him remembered as long as mathematics is practiced and studied. A blunt and accurate biography, this book depicts Tarski as thoroughly Polish, brilliant, an egomaniac, a lifelong drug user, tolerant of "alternative" lifestyles and as both a positive and negative role model. It is the most entertaining biography of a mathematician that I have ever read.

Fabulous! Alfred Tarski was one of the two greatest mathematical logicians of the twentieth century. (The other was Kurt Gödel.) Solomon Feferman, a student of Tarki's in the early fifties and a friend for over twenty years throughout the rest of Tarski's life, is himself one of most outstanding logicians of our day. Anita Feferman, Solomon Feferman's wife, is the author of the tremendously exciting biography of the logician and bodyguard to Leon Trotsky, Jean van Heijenoort: "From Trotsky to Gödel". (I know it's difficult to believe that a logician could also have been Trotsky's bodyguard; her book must be read to be believed!)
Clearly, this Tarski biography is a labor of love. I completely agree with those reviewers who have explained in detail why this book reads in places more like an exciting novel than a mere biography. What I found very impressive was the beautiful, delicate balance of the book between Tarski's mathematical accomplishments on the one hand and the daily features of his personal life on the other. He was not just a mathematician but rather a force of nature, a tornado, who swept everyone around him in his wake. Students, other mathematicians, university administrators, friends, colleagues, and especially women were all pulled into his mathematical and personal whirlwind.
No praise would be excessive for this outstanding book!

Feferman made a great work in this book to show another facet of Tarski's logic. Usually, Tarski is associated with set theory, notwithstanding his main interest was algebraic. He didn't trust to the set-theoretic concept of individual; as a matter of fact, in boolean algebras where's no individuals at all. It's a mereological point of view, according to which what it's given aren't the parts, but the whole. An atom is what we obtain, as a limit concept, dividing endlessy a corp. One of the first papers by Tarski was on the foundation of geometry assuming as a primitive entity that of sphere (i.e. the whole). And his latest book was again on the relational algebra. We must thank the polish logician for his research on this aresa: relational algebras, boolean algebras with operators, cylindric algebras, etc.

I don't agree with Feferman only on a point: this way to approach logic come to Tarski from Lesniewski and not from Kotarbinski. This is not the place, unfortunately, to discuss this matter.

At any rate, the book is delightful, precise but very easy to read.

To be honest, I started reading this book with some suspicion. In the first place, I was neither a fan of Tarski nor of S.Feferman. Though I did regard Tarski as one of the intellectual giants in the 20th century, I still frowned at the book's opening description of him as one of the "greatest" logicians of all time - on a par with my own hero Godel. My feeling towards S.Feferman was similarly ambivalent. In spite of his substantial contribution as the editor-in-chief of Godel's Collected Works and the universal praise he has received for that project, its end-result (the project was abandoned for running out of supports in 2005) is seriously lacking. For one thing, after almost 30 years' work the huge bulk of Godel's Nachlass in Gabelsberger (an almost extinct German shorthand) has been left unpublished (although approximately half of it has already been transcripted). It seems that more emphasis had been given by the editors and their colleague commentators on INTERPRETING Godel rather than making the inaccessible original material available to the wider public. I have always doubted the wisdom of Feferman's chief-editorship on this and other issues

Nevertheless, Feferman turns out to be a much more successful co-biographer of Tarski than an editor of Godel. The Tarski book goes far beyond my expectation. I simply couldn't put it down and went without sleeps for several nights until my eyes could no longer tolerate my indulgence. The reading has made Tarski an immensely more interesting figure to me - almost as interesting and intriguing as the enigmatic Godel. This aftermath is something which I could never have anticipated in my wildest dreams beforehand.

Since I agree with much of the praises from the Amazon Editorial and Customer Reviews of the book, I don't think it desirable to re-enumerate the book's various merits which others have already done. Needless to say, the book is not perfect and leaves much that is desired unaccounted. For one thing, although the book does present an interesting picture of the development of logic in the last century, it is presented from the Fefermans' highly personalized viewpoint and very one-sided. For example, from the book the reader will only get a very uninformed idea of the development of set theory which happens to be both Tarski's lifelong "hobby" and a source of intellectual uneasiness since he had a certain (though ambivalent perhaps, for he sometimes spoke in a Platonist tone) nominalist temperament while set theory is prima facie concerned with highly transfinite objects and often pursued by pronounced "realists" like Cantor, Zermelo, Godel (who was in effect described insane when Tarski declared himself as "the greatest living sane logician" ) et al. It is arguable that similar tension should also occur in Model Theory where Tarski reigned. But there is no discussion on this issue. It will also be interesting to know how Tarski reacted towards the epoch-making invention of forcing by P.Cohen in 1963, when the former was still an active researcher. The Fefermans say almost nothing on this either, although S.Feferman himself was one of the earliest developers of forcing immediately after Cohen. My own conjecture is that, like Godel, Tarski did not take forcing to be FUNDAMENTAL. Godel almost had a proof of the independence of the axiom of choice in the 1940s, but he abandoned the project partly because he did not want to encourage other logicians to plunge into a pursuit of independence proofs instead of trying to discover and develop new, further TRUE axioms of mathematics. Presumably the nominalist (by lips?) Tarski will perceive the issue very differently from the Platonist Godel. Yet the book gives us little clues about such and various other issues.

Paradoxically, it is precisely from the frankly personalized and unsystematic viewpoints of the Fefermans and other intimates of Tarski that we find much that is valuable. Moreover, unlike the Godel case, the authors did not forget to let the protagonist to present himself. And in spite of its moderate length and lack of comprehensiveness the book does manage to weave abundant insights into their captivating story of this intriguing man who is, given all his unconventional acts and deeds notwithstanding, first and foremost "powered by his ideas" (as Peter Hoffman puts it) with an extraordinary self-confidence throughout his life. It is amidst this web of insights that we are granted some of those very rare glimpses into the mind of a genius that so few biographers have ever accomplished.

unlike all the previous praises this book seems to have gotten, i was not impressed by it. the book is an account of tarski the academician as seen/experienced by his phd students one of whom is the co-author himself.

the book is an account of tarski's academic life which is apparently believed to be best reflected through his students' eyes. this account fails to put in anything else. even what his son and daughter have to say is missing for the most part. there are many things which go unexplained or unquestioned:
1. why was tarski so much into nature?
2. why was he obsessed with rigor and formality? just stating an observation and looking for the reasons of that observation makes the difference between a fact telling book on the verge of being a mere factoid and an intriguing/enriching one. this book is unfortunately as shallow as can be when it comes to some psychological assessments.
3. why was tarski a womanizer? was he really that or did he like portraying himself as one?
4. was he a tyrant and if so, why?

the authors make a huge deal out of the fact that he was a jew. can it be that this whole emphasis on his religious and ethnic origin is anachronic in nature? maybe he just did not care, really. why did he choose catholicism? just because? or was he so ambitious that he did not really have any ground rules at all? in the end, these questions all go unanswered.

giving 5 stars for such a shallow book is unwarranted and is an unjust blow to some successful biographies such as the enigma (about alan turing) crafted by andrew hodges.

If you want to learn about how to make suffix trees and other algorithms this is a great book.

The book was like new. The shipping was fast. I am very happy with this purchase!!!

This book is absolutely excellent. Gusfield walks the reader from simple concepts in string matching through advanced in a way that I found very easy to follow. Every bioinformatics researcher should have copy of this text.

A well written text book with an obvious bias to biological application, but maybe most useful for its clear explanation and rigour of string algorithms.

The text sits at the intersection of computer science and computational biology. It centres around the observation made by the author and others that often in CS, one has to manipulate strings of text, which are just sequences of text. While in computational biology, a recurrent theme is how to deal with sequences of molecules. These might be in a DNA sample or in a protein.

Surprisingly, from this simple observation, Gusfield manages to gather together considerable material. Over the decades, computing has accrued many algorithms for text string processing. The book's merit is in presenting those which are also applicable in bioinfomatics. The level of treatment is sophisticated, from the computing vantage. Enough so that perhaps the typical geneticist might not be able to easily follow the narrative. But a researcher with a strong background in both fields might be able to benefit.

Like virtually everyone else, I was completely blown away by this Apogee book, and wholeheartedly concur that the included DVD is well worth the price alone.

I only wish one or more of the Apollo 11 astronauts themselves were engaged to provide a commentary sound track on the DVD. Afterall, such is common practice on most theatrically based movies available in this media format. Nevertheless, there is wealth of pure video film footage, but unfortunately mostly of exceedingly poor (originally recorded) audio quality, or simply long periods of silence, with no voice chatter whatsoever, apparently due to lack of narrative communications skills on the part of the first moonwalker during their EVA on the Moon. NASA's mission control must have notice the lack of voluntary information voiced by the astronauts, since a couple of times CAPCOM in Houston asks Armstrong and Aldrin for a radio check. (To some extent this lack of commentary of what the astronauts were doing and observing, thankfully, was remedied in later missions.) Also, during the EVA, LMP (Buzz Aldrin) voice communications with Neil, the Mission Commander, as well as Mission Control are particularly difficult to understand, because of frequent transmission dropouts within the lunar surface voice communications link. Also, because of the relay used, there is an intrusive echo. However, this is the way it actually was during several of the Apollo missions. Apogee did the best they could with what they had to work with through no fault of their own, and in fact seemingly added value to the audio track whenever, and as much as possible. What a pity the original sound recordings from NASA's archives were not already somehow rerecorded to improve their value for posterity.

Nevertheless, the book and especially the DVD are an Apollo era collector's dream of priceless, nearly four decades old, still historically significant material. I think this is the only Apollo related book DVD combo of its kind with so much A/V and textual information about a singular mission. The content of both is also well organized and Apogee's Robert Goodwin deserves much praise for his efforts in creating this unique DVD. Without question, it adds much additional value in Volume 3 of the series of Apollo 11 Mission Reports.

I especially liked the DVD segment of the actual lunar landing sequence. Apogee added subtitles to augment the hard to hear voice transmissions - this time from the "actual" LM pilot, Neil Armstrong. The landing segment starts from LM Eagle's PDI (descent stage deceleration rocket engine burn) at 50,000 feet, and take the viewer second by second, all the way through to the last minute (unplanned) detour to the actual landing site. The book, and to a lesser extent the DVD, explain why the LM landed nearly 4 miles beyond the originally planned touchdown coordinates; a risky, but necessary, decision made by Armstrong, to bring the ship down, from his perspective at the controls, to a visibly safer landing area. The landing finally occurred with ~30 seconds of fuel remaining. That decision took real guts!

The book includes numerous pages of figures depicting the LM's powered descent from high gate (~7200 feet), to low gate (~500 feet), to actual touchdown. The camera's view of lunar terrain at close range, if you pay real close attention, reveals some of the small craters and boulder fields directly before the belated landing site. If I was aboard for the flight, I think "terrifying" could best describe the situation, yet the astronauts voices on the cockpit recorder, are completely calm, cool and collected through the entire ordeal. Their pre-flight training must have prepared them for any possible contingency.

One of section of the book, supplemented by A/V footage in the landing segment, covers several aspects of the mission that actually did go wrong. Mostly about equipment failures that did not present any dangerous conditions to abort the mission, lest not life threatening to the astronauts. Nevertheless, they were still interesting to learn about after all these years since man's first successful lunar landing occurred.

For example, just after the astronauts' EVA, while back in the LM, they discovered a broken switch handle on the ascent rocket engine ignition arming circuit breaker. In addition, earlier in the mission after liftoff from the KSC, a pressurization heater in one of two O2 tanks in the Service Module was suspected of failing. (This was something that relates to the previous and two subsequent Apollo missions, which eventually had diastrous consequences for Apollo 13.)

In the blackness of space and shades of gray on the surface, even in bright sunlight, the landing site on the Moon, both videos and still photography, appears in exceptional good quality. This is because much of event was originally filmed with a 16mm color movie camera fixed to the LMP window. Plus, the astronauts used a high resolution stills film camera called a Hasselblad.

There are many video segments thoughout the double sided DVD, of greatly enhanced picture quality because of NASA's use of both these camera. The famous television footage, for network TV broadcasts of the event in realtime, is frankly horrendously bad in quality. But, do not let that dissaude you from getting this particular DVD. Apogee has elevated the video chronology of Apollo 11 to new heights.

Fortunately, both Neil and Buzz's first steps were recorded by fixed field of view fixed mount 16mm color camera, in addition to the TV camera, and therefore from multiple angles. The results are surprisingly good from the color camera filming from behind the LMP's interior window. Of course, the astronauts come in and out of view using this technique.

Still, the viewer can clearly see about a 30 foot area of the lunar surface immediately outside the LM and the astronauts working around the American flag. Apogee had to time stretch each frame of the color camera film recording for purposes of synchronizing with the black and white TV broadcast.

Intersperced with the motion picture film are numerous still color photos from the Hasselblad, and the way Apogee sequenced and coordinated all three picture image sources is masterful edited to create this unique DVD.

The DVD has several consecutive segments covering the moonwalk, about 2 hours in duration, each selectable in chapters from the DVD's main menus, one for each side of the disc. On the flip side are several key in-flight maneuvers during the mission, plus the complete sequence from PDI, up until the actual lunar landing. The landing has the realtime audio track from the cockpit communications with CAPCOM and occasional PAO ground loop narratives.

The in-flight maneuvers shown include extraction of the LM from the spent S-IVB third stage booster rocket on the way to the Moon, all docking and undocking maneuvers between the CSM and the LM, both pre and post lunar landing. Each of these is from the vantage point of each of the two maneuverable spacecrafts. There is also an eerie view of the Moon's many cratered and barren features, from the windows of the CM while still in lunar orbit.

The DVD concludes with a large (menu driven) selection of "color" pictures of Tranquility Base, showing the LM, ALSEPs and nearby lunar landscape, while Amstrong and Aldrin were walking around on the Moon. Some of these photos are well publized, but many others have rarely been seen in other Apollo publications. Again, these photographs were shot with the Hasselblad and therefore are in fairly good resolution; all sharply focused and of unsurpassed color quality given the generally colorless imagery of the lunar surface.

Overall, this book and included DVD, are a goldmine of Apollo 11 Mission facts and figures, and a complete A/V photographic record of the event. The jam packed DVD is sure to become a prized possession of enthusiastic space buffs of the Apollo era. The only thing better would have been as an eye witness, voyager to the Moon in the capacity of a sightseeing passenger astronaut.

Apogee has given us that vicariously, in this richly rewarding DVD, placed in a vinyl jacket inside the pages of another one of their very fine Apollo Mission Reports. These are perfectly complementary to one another, and Volume 3 of the Apollo 11 Mission Report series is by far the most unique assemblage of diverse source material of all the Apollo Missions in the Apogee Mission Reports portfolio.

This 3 volume series on Apollo 11 is a treasure of information on this historic flight of the Apollo Program. The CDs are a wonderful addition with incredible resources for use in the classroom. As a high school science teacher, it is wonderful to have these great resources!

For producing the DVD alone, which includes rare NASA film footage, much of which has never been viewed before, Robert Godwin deserves some sort of award for this. It's absolutely brilliant.

As the others point out here - the included DOUBLE SIDED (flip it over for more!) DVD is worth the price of admission and more!

There is a lot of raw 16mm onboard film footage that is interesting including, docking sequences and orbit shots but the fully synchronised sequence of the first ever moon EVA is good. The whole of the powered descent - it is FANTASTIC. Watch them practice in the simulators in the Tom Hanks series "From the Earth to the Moon" (the only place I know where you can get a sense of how hard a moon landing was) then listen to the real Armstrong's telling comment "This is harder than the simulator" on this DVD.

The only thing missing from the powered desent commentary is the full mission control loop - and really it has to be for clarity - leaving just Charlie Duke as CapCom as the voice of Mission Control set against Armstrong and Aldrin. The only thing you can do to better this is to actually visit the Apollo exhibit at NASA in Florida where you get a snip of the powered descent in an AV display and you DO get the control room loop which includes Gene Kranz's call - "if we lose comms or get that program alarm again - call an abort". They didn't - and you can't help but get the feeling that if Kranz had called an abort at 100ft Armstrong would have just kept going. Mission Control were already having kittens about how long he had flown on manual, the comms breaking up (listen to the "Switch to Omni and set it in slew" - on the DVD for a clue - if you ever hear the Mission Control loop it sounds much worse!) and how low the fuel really was - and on this DVD you can almost hear Aldrin saying on the cockpit loop "Damn Neil PUT HER DOWN" (he doesn't but you can hear it in what he does say).

Yep the book is good too (as are the other two that make up the Apollo 11 report) and for the Apollo buff you must have all three. If you jut want to know what the first moon landing and moon walk were like - buy volume 3 - for the DVD

The book is what I've come to expect from Apogee. But the CD Rom included with this is worth twice the price of the whole package. I feel like I've just seen the landing for the first time. The EVA also is just wonderful. What brilliant use of technology Apogee.
My hat is off to you once again.
PS Please do the same with Pete Conrad's mission!!!!