Editorial Review

Computers rely on such things as semiconductors, memory chips, and electricity. But they also rely on a hard-won body of scientific knowledge that has enabled the now-ubiquitous devices to perform complex calculations, multitask, and even play a game of solitaire.Read more

Reviews (10)

formidable marble-eye stare
A very fun read chalk full of and lively interesting personal and biographical information on some of the greatest logicians and mathematicians to have ever lived (e.g. Godel, Hilbert, Boole).
A Fun Read.
An entertaining book that will be enjoyed by anyone interested in mathematical logic or computation theory. Davis weaves history, anecdote, and mathematics into an exciting sketch of the major developments in mathematical logic and their role in the development of the computer. He does a commendable job in explaining the mathematics in an accessible fashion, without distorting it by over-simplification. A good book for people new to the field as well as those already familiar with these stories.

An Excellent Overview
I thought that this book was an excellent overview of the development of logical thought and it's relevance to the modern computer.Davis does a superior job of energizing a subject that is admittedly a little dull.I found myself rereading several of the sections to try to better understand some of the math involved, but overall, I think Davis found a nice balance between the complexity of the math and the history of logic.My one serious criticism of the book is that I found the chronology to be tough to follow, and I often found myself referring back to previous chapters to try and get a better sense of when events were happening.It is natural to assume that a book like this is presented in chronological fashion.The Universal Computer generally is presented that way, but there are some events that happen more or less simultaneously.This is important to the overview of the history of the field.I think the book could actually use a graphical timeline with the birth dates of the mathematicians and the significant events (i.e. 1902 - Russell's letter to Frege, etc.) that are involved.Other than that, the book is informative and enjoyable for those interested in the origins of the modern computer. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Science    2. Computer Science (General)    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. Electronic digital computers    7. General    8. History    9. Mathematics    10. Science/Mathematics    11. History of science   

Reviews (6)

Christians fundimentalists have the King James Version, Computational geometrists have...
This book is to computational geometrists what the King James Version of the Bible is to christian fundimenalists.Even though newer translations of the Bible are easier to read, somehow nothing sounds quite so authentically like the voice of God than those Elisibethen cadences, written in an almost archaic language....
This book is history
This book is a classic, in fact the author's PhD thesis created this field, but this book is too old for any meaningful graduate work.There are new bounds and algorithms on almost all topics, which makes this a somewhat undesirable book.Also, this book has failed to keep me interested in it, while I am reading it...

Very useful for code development. Very clear and readable.
The ideas and algorithms presented in this book are clear enough for straight implementation in code. I have long experience in developing comercial and production software for VLSI layout applications, which made extensive use of the algorithms presented in this book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer Science    4. Computers    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. Geometry    7. Geometry - General    8. Mathematics    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    11. Computers-Computer Science    12. Data processing    13. Mathematics / Geometry / General    14. Mathematics-Discrete Mathematics   

Reviews (1)

Complex Presentation of ODE w/Maple--Excellent nevertheless
This is a great book for someone who has a solid understanding of ODE's,and Linear Algebra and wishing to use Maple V to solve PDE's.Not for the beginner in terms of mathematics background. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Boundary value problems    3. Data processing    4. Differential Equations    5. Differential Equations - Partial Differential Equations    6. Differential equations, Partia    7. Differential equations, Partial    8. Discrete Mathematics    9. Maple (Computer file)    10. Maple V    11. Mathematics    12. Partial Differential Equations    13. Science/Mathematics    14. Applications of Computing    15. Applied mathematics    16. Mathematics / Applied   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Combinatorial Analysis    3. Combinatorial designs and conf    4. Combinatorial designs and configurations    5. Combinatorics    6. Discrete Mathematics    7. General    8. Mathematics    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Combinatorics & graph theory    11. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Discrete Mathematics    5. General    6. Linear Programming    7. Mathematics    8. Computer Programming    9. Computers / Computer Science    10. Mathematical theory of computation    11. Probability & statistics   

Subjects:  1. Combinatorics    2. Discrete Mathematics    3. General    4. Graph Theory    5. Graphic Methods    6. Mathematics    7. Measure-preserving transformat    8. Measure-preserving transformations    9. Ramsey theory    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Calculus & mathematical analysis    12. Combinatorics & graph theory   

Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Control theory    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Linear systems    5. Markov processes    6. Mathematical Analysis    7. Mathematics    8. Probability & Statistics - General    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Stochastic control theory    11. Stochastic systems    12. Automatic control engineering    13. Mathematics / Statistics    14. Stochastics   

Reviews (1)

Another half for "Numerical Recipes in C"
If you just see Numerical Recipes ,you will annoy the exact usage of codes. It is the practical book for the usage of codes in "Numerical Recipes". For real world, this is more helpful than "Numerical Recipes" ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied    2. C (Computer program language)    3. C (Programming Language)    4. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    5. Computer Books: Languages    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Mathematics    9. Numerical Analysis    10. Programming Languages - C    11. Mathematics / General    12. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (4)

I have so many good things to say about this book...
This book is absolutely precious!It is a little bit weird, but you can get used to it.This book's strongest points are that it is easy to jump around in it, and it contains a wealth of material.It also has incredible numbers of exercises, of greatly varying difficulty levels.
Good Introduction, too many typos
I am, what Prof. Bollobas would call a hobby mathematician. Some popular science book arouse my interest in graph theory, and the author of that popular science book recommended this book. I feel it was a vey good introduction to the subject, even though the proofs become challenging at times. His motivation for the subject is always concise but precise, one cannot but notice, that a master of the subject is writing about it.
Excellent in content, but somewhat challenging in narrative
Bela Bollobas has the rare gift of having both deep mathematical insights, and the ability to eloquently communicate them in a way that is accessible to the average graduate student. In his book "Modern Graph Theory", Bollobas covers just about every exciting area of the subject, and does so in an up-to-date fashion that gives the reader a big picture of each sub-area of the field. The ability to do this not only seems difficult, but also essential, since he himself has written entire books on two of the chapters (extremal graph theory, and random graphs). Just about every major important theorem (including max-flow/min-cut Theorem, and theorems by Menger, Szemeredi, Kuratowski, Erdos/Stone, and Tutte) can be found here, and thus makes this book indispensable for anyone who does research in graph theory, combinatorics, and/or complexity theory.In my opinion the true highlights of this book are indeed those areas he knows best: extremal graph theory, random graphs, and random walks on graphs, the latter of which may be the best introduction to that subject that one will find in a textbook.Read more

Subjects:  1. Graph theory    2. Graphic Methods    3. Mathematical Analysis    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Calculus & mathematical analysis    7. Combinatorics & graph theory    8. Geometry    9. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics    10. Topology   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Algebra, Boolean    3. Boolean Algebra    4. Computational complexity    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computer Science    7. Computers    8. Discrete Mathematics    9. Logic    10. Mathematics    11. Programming - General    12. Theory Of Computing    13. Beweissysteme    14. Boolesche Funktionen    15. Computer Programming    16. Computers / Computer Science    17. Komplexitätstheorie    18. Mathematical theory of computation    19. Parallel processing    20. Paralleles Rechnen   

Editorial Review

Francis Sullivan of the Institute for Defense Analysis said "Great algorithms are the poetry of computation"; David Berlinski calls the algorithm "the idea that rules the world." Read more

Reviews (43)

More like Gödel's Proof, Context and Aftermath -- a different tack (than Nagel's "Gödel's Proof"), than much about algorithms
Other reviewers have said many useful things.The main point you must know is that this book is a rather flowery text that goes in many different directions, but parts -- large parts! -- are very informative and make clear to you some very important ideas.Let me quote the best, on-target, portions of other reviewers:
Does Mathematics Support Darwin or Intelligent Design?
Mathematician David Berlinski explains how the "algorithm" is sure to play a major role in the future of mathematics.An algorithm, Berlinski explains, is essentially a logical, mathematical procedure by which a goal can be accomplished in a finite number of steps.
Beware Uninitiated Reader, Better used as a firestarter.
Upon reading the Preface and Introduction I can't believe my eyes.I have seen english comp 101 papers with more clarity than Berlinski.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algorithms    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. History    5. History & Philosophy    6. Mathematics    7. Programming - Algorithms    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Computers / General   

Reviews (5)

5 Stars for undergrads
If you are looking in to 3d Nurbs buy this book. If you are looking to build a robot from scratch buy this book. It may mean taking calculus and linear algebra but the algorithms are very advanced and quick. This is the math that every corporation would like you to have if you are an engineer. Plus it helps you understand many of the mathematicians. After reading this book you have excellent under pinning for your name.
Archaic First Course in Numerical Analysis
A constant in numerical analysis for years the second edition has not kept pace with the way mathematics is contemporarily taught to engineers and scientists.The book appears to assume an older format of learning mathematics was used by the reader. The reader will soon be seeking additional texts to make this one understandable.

A classic and a bargain at that
I lost my original copy during my last move. Therefore, I was overjoyed that an inexpensive paperback version had been printed. A must for the numerical analyst's library. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Discrete Mathematics    2. Linear Programming    3. Mathematical Analysis    4. Mathematical Physics    5. Mathematics    6. Numerical analysis    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (1)

What an introductory book on combinatorics should be
Little did I expect of a book that has seemingly not garnered that much attention among professors and students (at least the lack of reviews in Amazon.com might serve as a confirming instance of that speculation), but come exam time, the book proved that such prejudice is outright foolish.Read more

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial Analysis    2. Combinatorics    3. Graph Theory    4. Graphic Methods    5. Mathematics    6. Probability & Statistics - General    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Set Theory    9. Combinatorics & graph theory    10. Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics    11. Mathematics / Graphic Methods    12. Mathematics-Combinatorics    13. Mathematics-Probability & Statistics - General   

Subjects:  1. Combinatorial geometry    2. Data processing    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Geometry    5. Geometry - General    6. Mathematics    7. Probability & Statistics - General    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Mathematics / Geometry / General   

Reviews (2)

Comprehensive supplementary reference
Don't try to learn anything for the first time from this. In each of the book's 54 sections, information is delivered as bulleted lists of definitions and theorems (called "facts") and there are extensive references to the literature. To maximize brevity, there is seldom any narrative introduction and only a few brief examples. No proofs, just references to them.
Nothing more than a handbook
As the title indicates, this is not a textbook, but a handbook. Theinterest of this one is to have pointers to the literature and to cover as much as possible of graph theory, so don't expect to find much details about something particular. I don't think it's useful for anything else than having a "close to hand" access to most of graph theory, hence only three stars for this limited interest compared to the relatively high price. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Discrete Mathematics    3. General    4. Graph theory    5. Graphic Methods    6. Handbooks, manuals, etc    7. Mathematics    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Combinatorics & graph theory    10. Mathematics / Combinatorics   

Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Data processing    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. Engineering - General    7. Engineering Mathematics    8. General    9. Mathematica    10. Mathematical physics    11. Mathematics    12. Science/Mathematics    13. Mathematics / Applied    14. Mathematics for scientists & engineers   

Reviews (1)

Excellent
This book is written at a graduate level.It is written, for the most part, clearly and methodically.There are about 300 problems throughout the text, but there are no solutions in this book for those problems.Read more

Subjects:  1. Discrete Mathematics    2. Graphic Methods    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Topological graph theory    6. Topology    7. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (2)

For the dedicated specialist
This book is highly mathematical. It phrases its points as a series of theorems, with a number of case studies at the end. The theorems all stop just short legible technique. The examples, though exciting, all presuppose command of technique. I regret that I never found that missing piece within myself. That piece was the one that connects deep theorems about abstract N-dimensional pseudodistances into working fluency about CAT scans. Proximal point algorithms by Censor and Zenios
Part I of this book starts with an aphorism, Read more

Subjects:  1. Computers - General Information    2. Data processing    3. Discrete Mathematics    4. Linear Programming    5. Mathematical optimization    6. Mathematics    7. Optimization (Mathematical Theory)    8. Parallel Processing    9. Parallel processing (Electroni    10. Parallel processing (Electronic computers)    11. Programming - Parallel Programming    12. Science/Mathematics    13. Computer Science | Programming Language & Theory    14. Computers / Programming / Parallel    15. Mathematics-Discrete Mathematics   

Reviews (3)

Second edition is optimized for Mathematica 4.0...
Joy does work on Mathematica 5.1, however, the current version, and it runs on both Mac and PC platforms (OS X for the Mac and Windows XP for the PC).
Fantastic!!!!
A wonderful book!Maple has been described as "the force" in CAS with Mathematica described as "the dark force". This wonderful book brings Mathematica into the light.

Making Mathematica a Joy to Use
"The Joy of Mathematica" really does make Mathematica software a "Joy" to use, and to learn. Users of Mathematica know and love the powerful capabilities of this excellent mathematical softwareenvironment for symbolic and numeric computation with incredible supportfor 2D and 3D graphics. Students and professionals considering adoptingMathematica are often awestruck by the enormous range of mathematicalcapabilities suddenly put at their fingertips. However, Mathematica is nota Joy to use, as each powerful command (and there are many) is accompaniedby so many parameters and modifiers (all necessary), requiring a not soJoyful syntax. "The Joy of Mathematica" comes to the rescue, andindeed, it is a real JOY to use! "Joy" comes in the form of abook, an easy to use tutorial and guide, with an accompanying CD. Thesoftware on the CD installs easily, and modifies your own Mathematica"front end" environment by providing very useful and wellorganized pull-down menus which launch diaglog boxes. The diaglog boxes aregreat! They remind the user which parameters and choices need to bespecified in the context of a particular Mathematica command. They provideimmediate examples for the student to try. They output clear summaries ofthe entered requests, organize the computed output, and allow the user toview the actual Mathematica commands which "Joy" issues. This inturn helps the user learn Mathematica's arcane command syntax (if you wantto bother). "Joy" provides the student and experienced user withthe menu structure we all wish we had when using Mathematica."Joy" is really a terrific teaching and learning tool for collegestudents of science and engineering, and a great way to bring great mathsoftware into the hands of high school students. It's a "Joy" forme and my son, and it will work for you too. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Science    2. Computers    3. Computers - Other Applications    4. Data processing    5. Discrete Mathematics    6. Mathematica    7. Mathematica (Computer file)    8. Mathematical & Statistical Software    9. Mathematics    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (1)

an introduction to an interesting subject
--The first part of the book is devoted to quite hard chapters on transitive, arc-transitive graph,homomorphism, etc.Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Combinatorics    3. General    4. Graph theory    5. Graphic Methods    6. Mathematics    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Algebra    9. Algebraic graph theory    10. Combinatorics & graph theory    11. Mathematics / Combinatorics