Jan Gullberg (1936–1998)

This was easily one of my favorite books as a kid (I took Calculus as a sophomore in high school, Multi-Variable Calculus as a junior, and Linear Algebra/Differential Equations as a senior). And now, after many years of no math, it looks like I'm going to be tutoring students in high-school level mathematics.

So where am I going? Not to the standard Algebra text, or any massive textbook that they use in schools. I'm going to Gullberg. Glad I kept it.

Excellent tome on general mathematics from counting all the way to differential equations. Contains examples galore. If you aren't satisfied after all of this, it contains an extensive bibliography for further reading. The book also contains an index to help find things in the text.

Along with the mathematics, it covers some history of the particular subject being done, with the important people who brought forth the developments necessary and the important works that they were covered in.

For show more instance, in the section on Trigonometry it explains that the word Trigonometry is not actually a native Greek word and that the term was invented by a German mathematician and astronomer named Bartholomaeus Pitiscus back in 1595. It goes on to cover important developments, how they used it and relevant problems. This book is a wonderful addition to a library if you can afford it. Though it is more of a reference guide really, it does contain a good deal of history. show less

The book is very hard

This is a combination history of mathematics and encyclopedic reference text.