2023-12-20
In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz invites the reader to see the fascinating, fun and even beautiful side of mathematics. Each short chapter is independent and presents a mathematical topic, often with historical context and always with modern day relevance. It is written with a general audience in mind, but even for someone who did a lot of mathematics at school and university, albeit a (considerable) number of years ago, the book provides a fresh, amusing perspective and some insights both on fundamentals such as Euclidean geometry and modern advances in topology and other fields.
For example, thanks to this book I know which parts of mathematics made the Internet possible and finally have a simple, visual and intuitive understanding of the formula for the area of a circle of radius :
Highly recommended to cure those who think they hate mathematics and motivate the rest to pursue or rekindle their interest.