Review

Author(s): E. A. Maxwell
Review by: E. A. Maxwell
Source: The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 50, No. 372 (May, 1966), p. 213
Published by: Mathematical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3612003
Accessed: 21-01-2016 03:45 UTC

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 REVIEWS 213

of education, where it should be of real value in helping pupils into very

unfamiliar, but rewarding, territory.
E. A. MAXWELL

100 great problems of elementary mathematics: their history and

solution. By HEINRicHDORRIE,translated by DAVIDAUSTIN. Pp. x,
393. $2.00. 1965. (Dover)
This is the Dover translation of a book published in 1958 under the
title of Triumph der Mathematik, which was itself the fifth edition of a
book dated 1932.
Adequate review is impossible-the picture changes (99 times!) as
one reads: Kirkman's Schoolgirl problem; Lucas' problem of the
married couples; Buffon's needle problem, Archimedes' determination
of the number Tr; the maximum brightness of Venus; the problem of
the shortest twilight.
I'm tempted to draw the attention of all those who (alas!) won't
read it to the section on the trisection of an angle.
The book is warmly recommended for school libraries and for the
personal enjoyment of all mathematicians who like to wander around
as pleasure takes them.
E. A. MAxwELL

A course of higher mathematics. By V. I. SMIRNov. In five volumes

(volume 3 in two parts). 1964. (Pergamon)
These volumes belong to the International Series of monographsin pure
and applied mathematics. They are translated from the Russian by
D. E. Brown; the translations have been edited, and additions made,
by Prof. I. N. Sneddon, one of the editors of the Series.
The word " monumental " has much to be said against it; but if it is
to be used at all in a review, this is the occasion. Apart from introductory
matter, there are 3,643 pages, which works out (ignoring covers and
binding) at 1-8 pence per page. Even to list the contents in any sort
of detail would carry the size of the present Gazettewell beyond what an
editor could wish or a treasurer allow. We must be selective.

Volume 1. Elementary Calculus. Pp. xiii, 543. 90s.

The chapter headings are: Functional relationships and the theory
of limits; Differentiation, theory and applications; Integration, theory
and applications; Series, applications to approximate evaluations;
Functions of several variables; Complex numbers, the foundations of
higher algebra, integration of various functions. The book gives,
essentially, a thorough course on classical calculus or analysis for upper
school and early university. There are 1,037 exercises for solution,
but, oddly, none for the final chapter (Complex numbers, etc.). The
treatment is full and unhurried, with an abundance of illustrations.
Would you know the area of an ellipsoid of revolution? Turn to p. 273.
H

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