Math Reading Challenge discussion

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2020 prompts > 02 A math-related book published the year you were born

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message 1: by Evelyn (last edited Dec 23, 2019 07:51PM) (new)

Evelyn Lamb (evelynjlamb) | 61 comments Mod
Obviously, this will vary for people. I was born in 1983, and I'm kind of curious about Discrete Mathematics: A Computational Approach using BASIC by Marvin Marcus because I'm curious about what this computational approach would have looked like almost 40 years ago!
Share your recommendations for your year or tips for searching for math books by year on this thread.


message 2: by Colin (new)

Colin | 30 comments A hint: Wikipedia lists some books by publication date, so something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor... (for me) is a good starting point.


message 3: by Evelyn (new)

Evelyn Lamb (evelynjlamb) | 61 comments Mod
Colin wrote: "A hint: Wikipedia lists some books by publication date, so something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor... (for me) is a good starting point."
Nice! I've also had some luck using the advanced search function on the University of Utah (because that's the academic institution where I have library privilege) library website and filtering by year of publication and topic. Unfortunately, it seems to turn up a lot of things that are more along the lines of policy reports by various education institutions, but I've found some books that might be worth reading there.


message 4: by Colin (new)

Colin | 30 comments It seems AbeBooks has a search by publication date function. Similarly, there’s a lot of reports and textbooks, but it does narrow things down.


message 5: by Christian (new)

Christian | 4 comments That Wikipedia link worked out great for me. This looks really exciting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bea...


message 6: by Enrique (new)

Enrique | 8 comments I used the Wikipedia link too. 1984, seems to only have one math book The Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rocker. It looks interesting, I've read some science fiction stories by Rudy Rocker before. His stories had a nice sense of humor.


message 7: by Donna (new)

Donna (dhgifford) | 5 comments Well, this is a challenge. 1951 seems somewhat lacking in choices but I have found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundat.... The plot description includes this: This part is original to the 1951 book version and takes place in 0 F.E. ("Foundation Era"). The story begins on Trantor, the capital of the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire, a powerful but slowly decaying empire. Hari Seldon, a mathematician and psychologist, has developed psychohistory, a new field of science and psychology that equates all possibilities in large societies to mathematics, allowing for the prediction of future events.

Seems that it meets the criteria and I enjoy science fiction. I read Asimov in my teen years so this will be a throwback in multiple ways.


message 8: by Enrique (new)

Enrique | 8 comments Donna, Foundation is one of my favorite novels. The sequels are fun too.


message 9: by jwg (new)

jwg | 2 comments Hi! I just ordered https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minds... published 1980


message 10: by Dimitris (last edited Jan 02, 2020 04:33AM) (new)

Dimitris Nakos | 4 comments I found out this little gem of a search engine http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFI..., but it's for fiction only.
My personal choice, of year 1988, will be Neverness. Seems like a tough read though. Fingers crossed I"ll be able to read it!

Colin wrote: "It seems AbeBooks has a search by publication date function. Similarly, there’s a lot of reports and textbooks, but it does narrow things down."
Please share away your experience since I'm more than excited to add this to my list, since complexity, chaos and fractals is one heck of a scientific field!


message 11: by Donna (new)

Donna (dhgifford) | 5 comments Dimitri, that’s an awesome resource for some of the prompts! Thank you.


message 12: by Michelle (new)

Michelle McColl (mickeigh) | 3 comments I only found three options under 1973, so am planning to go with Gravity's Rainbow as the other two are just short stories. Though I have printed The Gigantic Fluctuation so I will read that as well.


message 13: by Xinli (new)

Xinli | 2 comments Dimitris wrote: "I found out this little gem of a search engine http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFI..., but it's for fiction only.
My personal choice, of year 1988, will be [book:Neverness|96..."

Thanks for the link! I found a book that looks interesting: Q.E.D by Bruce Stanley Burdick, 1984.


message 14: by Katherine (new)

Katherine | 3 comments I tried the hint of using the listing in Wikipedia. Turns out that Abramowicz and Stegun was published in the year I was born, and I do own it, and have to admit I have never read it cover to cover...I think I will keep looking!


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