The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics
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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics

by Christopher Clapham, James Nicholson

Overview


Authoritative and reliable, this A-Z guide provides jargon-free definitions for even the most technical mathematical terms. With over 3,000 entries ranging from Achilles paradox to zero matrix, it covers all commonly encountered terms and concepts from pure and applied mathematics and statistics, for example, linear algebra, optimisation, nonlinear equations, and differential equations. In addition, there are entries on major mathematicians and on topics of more general interest, such as fractals, game theory, and chaos.

Using graphs, diagrams, and charts to render definitions as comprehensible as possible, entries are clear and accessible. Almost 200 new entries have been added to this edition, including terms such as arrow paradox, nested set, and symbolic logic. Useful appendices follow the A-Z dictionary and include lists of Nobel Prize winners and Fields' medallists, Greek letters, formulae, and tables of inequalities, moments of inertia, Roman numerals, a geometry summary, additional trigonometric values of special angles, and much more. This edition contains recommended web links, which are accessible and kept up to date via the Dictionary of Mathematics companion website.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780199679591
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 07/22/2014
Series: Oxford Paperback Reference Series
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 544
Sales rank: 253,071
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author



James Nicholson has a mathematics degree from Cambridge, and taught at Harrow School for twelve years before becoming Head of Mathematics at Belfast Royal Academy in 1990. He lives in Belfast, but now works mostly with the School of Education at Durham University. He is the author of two A level Statistics texts, two GCSE Mathematics revision guides and a contributing author for a number of other mathematics textbooks.



Christopher Clapham wrote the first and second editions of this dictionary. Until 1993 he was Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen. His publications include Introduction to Abstract Algebra and Introduction to Mathematical Analysis.

Table of Contents



Preface
Dictionary
Appendices

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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics 2 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 2 reviews.
Anonymous More than 1 year ago
Guest More than 1 year ago
Unfortunately, this pocket dictionary 'claiming to be ¿concise¿' primarily re-iterates vague definitions from textbooks. For example, ¿differentiate¿ in calculus is an ambiguous misnomer that baffles students in that a mathematician from the old school gave the method the incorrect name. The authors should clarify that, for the GEOMETRIC FACET, short-line segments 'tangent lines' are marked around the exterior of a curved line and/or point-to-point short-line segments 'such as secant lines' are marked along the interior of the curved line in order to approximate information about the curved line itself at a given point 'a constant' that is anchored in common on the short-line segment and the curved line because the old buffs were rigid thinkers who couldn¿t be flexible enough to develop a method for working with curvatures. The ALGEBRAIC FACET uses the difference quotient f'x+h' ¿ f'x'/h when x is an unknown input value, or f'a+h' ¿ f'a'/h when x=a is a known input value and that ¿differential calculus¿ is used primarily for proofing new solutions and geometric shapes, and the basics of motion in physics whose movements of velocity and acceleration correlate as the 1st and 2nd derivatives within a one- and two-dimensional 'x,y' plane where ¿limits¿ are easily misconstrued, and so on. Also, the authors recite the use of formulas as examples 'commonly accepted equations for a theorem' when they don¿t know the concise meaning for a dictionary definition. Overall, I can¿t recommend this dictionary to other students because it doesn¿t overcome the insufficient textbook definitions, so I¿m still shopping for a good math dictionary that contains real-world clarifications of mathematical terminology.