Timeline for What are some of the qualities that inviting textbooks share?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Jul 29, 2015 at 0:13 | comment | added | paul garrett | @AlexanderWoo, while I'd certainly not argue that all "internally motivated" problems are interesting to everyone, or even could be presented (honestly) as such, at some point a person's reaction to such things is sort of a diagnostic/litmus test for their natural inclinations. That is, after bluster and adversarial-ness is removed, it still doesn't follow that everyone finds math fun. And I don't want to hype anyone into thinking so ... | |
| Jul 28, 2015 at 23:02 | comment | added | Alexander Woo | I'm skeptical your approach works any better. I once spent the last week of an honors linear algebra class deriving the formula for the cubic discriminant using linear algebra on the space of symmetric polynomials. The class was bright enough to understand at least the basic idea. I got zero interest on the question. In fact, I know this persuaded one student to NOT major in math because it helped her realize that much of mathematics is about solving purely internal problems - problems that are about how to solve other mathematical problems (like telling when a cubic has a double root). | |
| Jul 25, 2015 at 14:44 | comment | added | paul garrett | @GerhardPaseman, as you can infer, I am put off by most textbooks. :) I do like Alain Robert's book on non-standard analysis, R. Strichartz' book on distributions, Folland's Tata lectures on PDE, Varadarajan's "Intro to Harmonic Analysis on Semi-Simple Lie groups", Edwards' book on Riemann's zeta, Gelfand-Graev-etal six volumes on generalized functions (including the 6th volume, on automorphic forms), Coutinho's book on D-modules, ... I've tried to write notes/books myself that were engaging, etc. The very concept of painstaking, drawn-out version of "undergrad" math is itself the problem. | |
| Jul 25, 2015 at 5:52 | comment | added | Gerhard Paseman | OK. Uh, are there any textbooks or even online references that you found accessible and engaging? Gerhard "Would Like A Positive Answer" Paseman, 2015.07.24 | |
| Jul 24, 2015 at 21:55 | history | answered | paul garrett | CC BY-SA 3.0 |