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Friday, 29 January 2010

Reading list for a keen 13 year old mathematician

I was asked a question from a keen 13 year old school student who has been playing around with Pythagorean triples. I asked Twitter for "inspiring reading" for such a student (and @DrLucyRogers & @MEImath retweeted this request). The responses were good and @robbieg8s wrote to ask me to post the list somewhere. Here it is.

Suggestions (chronological order; who made the suggestion in brackets):
  • suggest The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose - real meat to get into and mind expanding (@CarlLegge)
  • suggest after that The Structure of Delight by Nelson Zink - to look after the personal and social aspects (@CarlLegge)
  • FLATLAND! Possibly also Uncle Albert books, Simon Singh's Cracking Code book, Hawking's George's Secret Key... (@alicebell)
  • Group Theory in the Bedroom http://ow.ly/11Pah (@peterflom)
  • I put some things up here: http://bit.ly/8Ys3q9 For a 13 year old I would suggest Martin Gardner (@Gelada)
  • Mathematical Maze and Why Beauty is Truth. Think they're both Ian Stewart (@CheshireSwift)
  • how about Ian Stewart's Cabinet of Mathematical curiosities http://bit.ly/byYhmi and its sequel (@chrisleach78)
  • A useful list by the MA at: http://bit.ly/c0kdmL (@MEImaths)
I hope this is useful. More welcome in the comments!

Update (10/02/10): There are some good suggestions in the comments below.
Posted by Peter Rowlett at 22:25.

4 comments:

AdamJTP said...

One of my treasured childhood books was "A Mathematician's Apology".

29 January 2010 22:43
Bill the Lizard said...

It seems like Ian Stewart is pretty popular, so I'll add that his "Letters to a Young Mathematician" is aimed directly at that age group. I also wish I'd read John Allen Paulos' "Innumeracy" and "Beyond Numeracy" earlier in life.

29 January 2010 22:43
Seabrook said...

The Road To Reality by Penrose will be a challenging book; this must be an advanced 13 year old.

My suggestions :-

-any book by Gelfand in the Gelfand School Program. Gelfrand talks with young readers in a much more engaging way than any texty book does.

- Puzzle Based Learning, by Michalewicz and Michalewicz

- books by

- Havil
- Maor

If this person is up to Penrose, then they might enjoy "The Monty Hall Problem " by Rosenhouse.

30 January 2010 09:20
Joao F. Ferreira said...

Hello Peter,

I recommend Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou. It is a beautiful graphic novel on the life of Bertrand Russell and his quest on the search for solid foundations for mathematics. I enjoyed it very much and I think a 13 year old mathematician would enjoy it too. :)

I also like Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, but some parts of the book may be a bit too advanced for a 13-year-old.

Finally, I think that Men of Mathematics by E. Bell is a good reference and can be very inspiring for a young mathematician.

All the best,
Joao

P.S.: The biographic nature of the references reflect my own preferences: when I learn new concepts, I try to learn more about their creators.

2 February 2010 22:56

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