Vladimir Rojansky: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves

Vladimir Rojansky served in the White Army during the Russian Civil War. His regiment retreated across Siberia. Rojansky continued his journey across the Pacific to America.

He was one of the first students of quantum mechanics; his thesis advisor was Nobel Prize winner, John van Vleck.

Rojansky taught for many years, and then worked on communications satellites and other projects at TRW.

This book, from Dover Publications assumes only a basic background in physics and calculus, but leads all the way up to the Maxwell equations. It is an excellent text, reflecting Rojansky's academic background and practical industry experience.

Calculus: A Modern Approach by Karl Menger

It is an unfortunate reality many textbooks are quite expensive-often over $100.

Karl Menger's Calculus: A Modern Approach is a welcome exception.

This book costs less than $20 (available from Dover). It has the advantage of having been written by a noted Vienna Circle mathematician. One of Menger's areas of expertise was the "explication of [mathematical] concepts" and he also trained US military personnel in mathematics during World War II.

The book suits the needs of the absolute beginner: you can start on page one and proceed with a "miniature calculus" (which is developed into a "full calculus" in the course of the book), or, if you are using the book as a reference or refresher, the book can be used for that as well-note that it includes an entire chapter on scientific applications of calculus.

The Advent of the Algorithm

I really wanted to like this book, as well as another by the same author: A Tour of the Calculus.

The battered scan should convince you that I DID read this book…some parts several times…

David Berlinski clearly knows his mathematics, and his "formula" of explaining things through historical anecdotes, should work, but it doesn't.

The problem is that the anecdotes start, very quickly, to seem forced. You just *know* that they did not happen.

In addition, there are many other books-some reviewed here-that do a much better of of accomplishing what Berlinski set out to do.

Patrick Jost