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From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Funniest math book
Message-ID: <470@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 14:07:54 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.470
Posted: Wed Mar  5 14:07:54 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Mar-86 02:29:30 EST
References: <443@cubsvax.UUCP> <12180@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 25

In article <12180@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) writes:

> In article <443@cubsvax.UUCP> winston@cubsvax.UUCP (Ken Winston) writes:
> A very readable account is in F Acton _Numerical Methods That Work_,
> chapters 1 and 12.  Not only is it a good book (although be warned that
> some of his *particular* comments about certain methods are no longer
> valid--old methods get revived a lot in numerical analyis), it is the
> only numerical analysis book that makes it clear that THINKING is the
> most important technique for solving numerical problems on computers.
> It is also the FUNNIEST math book ever written.

I share Matthew Wiener's enthusiasm for Acton, but would disagree on
his choice of "funniest math book".  My nomination would be _Mathematics
Made Difficult_, by Carl E. Linderholm. The title says it all. I don't
know if it is still in print.

-- 
Glend.	I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hot.	Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you
	do call for them?    --  Henry IV Pt. I, III, i, 53

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (USnail)
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