I suggest that your friend go the public library and browse the mathematics section for something interesting. -- Gene From: Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2014 5:21 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Intro to calculus book for an English major On 13 Dec 2014 at 11:22, Andy Latto wrote:
Why does your friend want to learn mathematics? If he wants to learn physics, or engineering, calculus is something he needs to learn. But if he wants to learn mathematics for its own sake, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, I would consider learning abstract algebra, starting with group theory, rather than calculus.
I think you're onto something -- calculus came up because of something we were discussing... But the fact is that to first order *ALL* of mathematics is beautiful if presented properly, and I realize that I if I succeeded in teaching some calculus, my friend would have learned exactly nothing useful. But your suggestion got me thinking: instead of calculus I'll propose probability and statistics. Both can be a lot of fun and useful in everyday life [especially if you *understand* them]... and no need to teach derivations but knowing some about the distributions [without the ugly equations behind them] or what a "t-test" is and what it tells you can be something good to know. I'll try that tack. THANKS!! /Bernie\ ps, on the subject of Calculus, in poking around I found that Martin Gardner wrote a book "Calculus Made Easy" -- how can anything by MG not be good... /b\ -- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--