Prelude to Mathematics

London: Penguin Books, Pelican Imprint, 1955 Back cover: In Mathematician's Delight, one of the most popular Pelicans so far published, W. W. Sawyer describes the traditional mathematics of the engineer and scientist. In Prelude to Mathematics the emphasis is not on those branches of mathematics which have great practical utility, but on those which are exciting in themselves: mathematics which is strange, novel, apparently impossible, for instance, an arithmetic in which no number is bigger than four. These topics are preceded by an analysis of that enviable attribute 'the mathematical mind' Professor Sawyer not only shows what mathematicians get out of mathematics, but also what they are trying to do, how mathematics grows, and why there are new mathematical discoveries still to be made. His aim is to give an all-round picture of his subject, and he therefore begins by describing the relationship between pleasure-giving mathematics and that which is the servant of technical and social advance. --------------------------------------- 214 pages ---------- Orders of $100.00 or more are shipped using tracked courier delivery services. Size: Roughly 4½ " Wide - 7" Tall