Mathematics made difficult
by Carl E. Linderholm · first published 1971
82% recommend9% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
A satire of math textbooks that uses deliberately mangled, pedantic explanations to teach real concepts like difference tables and the nature of numbers and infinity. Readers find it funny and instructive.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Covers all aspects of life in early Greece, with abundant illustrations and an emphasis on the Greeks' role as the founders of Western civilization and culture.
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…classify it, would have some claim to being both? … although the old maxim “What's a number?” “Whatever you treat as a number” (which I encountered in Linderholm's wonderful book (http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-made-difficult-Carl-Linder...) ) means that the various flavours of infinity, considered as ordinals or cardinals, have some claim to being numbers; and it is often helpful in measure theory, and my own work, to treat…
on “Timothy Gowers on mathematical implication” ↗He's analogizing to the fictional "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". There does exist an analog to the real world "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": Carl E. Linderholm's "Mathematics Made Difficult". Utterly hilarious. Regrettably, it's out of print, and you have a choice of paying upwards of $138.50 (abebooks.com) for a used copy of a book of jokes, or finding the pirated pdf I once encountered…
on “Why there is no Hitchhiker’s Guide to Mathematics for Programmers” ↗Many people, mathematicians and aspirants, would find "Mathematics made Difficult" by Carl E Linderholm (pub. 1972) entertaining and possibly instructive. PDFs are available to those without scruples.
on “A Mathematician’s Apology” ↗I heartily recommend Mathematics Made Difficult by Carl Linderholm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Made_Difficult?wpr... Imagine an introduction to math in that style.
on “My unusual hobby” ↗When seeing any of these "X made easy" titles, I can't help, but think of "Mathematics Made Difficult" by Carl E. Linderholm. I found it hilarious even though all the mathematics in it was over my head.
on “Calculus Made Easy (1910)” ↗Linderholm's Mathematics Made Difficult is a converse: a book that, despite utter lack of need, leaps into being pedantic. Nevertheless, it remains both amusing and instructive. https://archive.org/details/mathematics-made-difficult
on “Ask HN: Math books you recommend just for the way they are written?” ↗You should read the famous book by Linderholm, Mathematics Made Difficult
on “Programming with Categories” ↗Mathematics Made Difficult, Carl E Linderholm
on “Ask HN: What are the most eye-opening textbooks you have ever read?” ↗The wonderful (satirical, but mathematically sophisticated) book Mathematics Made Difficult introduces difference tables, and uses them to demonstrate how to compute the next number in the sequence [1,2,4,8,16,…] – that number being, of course, 31. This answer is correct in that it is the next…
on “9,73,241,561,1081,1849,_?_” ↗If you disliked the new math, you'll detest Linderholm, Mathematics Made Difficult https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3693042-mathematics-made...
on “Banned math book” ↗In that case, Amazon is your friend: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-made-difficult-Carl-Linde...
on “A Mathematician’s Apology” ↗