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> The set ℕ is the set of positive integers, not including 0. Hell yeah! I've agonised over this quite a lot over the decades. Not including 0 is more intuitive, but including 0 is more convenient. Of course, both approaches are correct. My main reason for not including 0 is that I hate seeing sequences numbered starting with 0.
Qwen3 recommends
Blurb Lulu BookBaby Mixam
For a 1000 page book, it suggest pricing of ≈$120 for single copies, down to $15-25 for a run of 1000.
Is there a way to get a nicely bound hardcopy ? Doing a single one-off is expensive, I wonder if a hundred people got togehter, would a larger run be more cost effective ? Are there services for those larger runs ? Qwen3 recommends Blurb Lulu BookBaby Mixam For a 1000 page book, it suggest pricing of ≈$120 for single copies, down to $15-25 for a run of 1000.
Maybe cheap child labour is called for…
I have been looking for a general all around math text since last century (as an amateur / recreational mathematician). I m starting to look at this. It seems to cover lots of ground. Any observations?
1) The Princeton Companion to Mathematics by Timothy Gowers et al. and The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics by Nicholas Higham et al. - The closest you have to a Modern Encyclopedia of Mathematics. You get unmatched breadth after which you can move on to dedicated books as needed. Well worth the money.
2) Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by Aleksandrov, Kolmogorov et al. - Absolutely brilliant overview of Basic Mathematics. Published by Dover and hence very affordable.
3) Elements of Mathematics: From Euclid to Gödel by John Stillwell - Written as sort of an update to the great Felix Klein's Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint books. The Topics are particularly well chosen given modern advances; they include Arithmetic, Computation, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Combinatorics, Probability, Logic.
For another approach at teaching math in an accessible (and self-teaching friendly) approach, I can’t recommend Jay Cummings enough. I recently tried to go for a math degree in my free time using my countries’ remote learning option, and even though the attempt didn’t last long because the format is hopelessly broken (Mediterranean bureaucracy), I’m still engaging in self learning through his books and they’re an abs…
I would strongly recommend getting, and working through Serge Lang's book "Basic Mathematics" for people who want to self-study what is normally considered "basic maths" (ie the stuff you might have covered in high school plus some of what in the US is called "college algebra" (in the UK and Europe that is just covered in high school and "algebra" at university generally means abstract algebra. I did it to get my ver…
Thank you for the recommendation, that sounds much more like my level at the moment!