An imaginary tale

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1. reebooApr 2023
   Here is fun, and rather short, book on the history of complex numbers that I liked -- https://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Tale-Princeton-Science-Libr...
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2. dimitrios1Apr 2023
   As a random aside, if anyone wants a fun read, check out An Imaginary Tale: The Story of √-1
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3. zsmiNov 2021
   I really enjoy looking into the history of mathematics and physics. I think it gives one a much better appreciation of why things are defined the way they are, and also the limitations of those definitions.

   There is a really great book on the history of imaginary numbers. The history mostly focuses on how i was used to help solve algebra problems, so definitely one should be comfortable with high school algebra to get something from the text, but I don't think one needs much more math than that for the first half of the book. The second half gets more into how various use cases developed, in those chapters basic college level calculus would be a major plus. I read it more than 10 years ago though so no promises. :)

   An Imaginary Tale: The Story of √-1 Paul J. Nahin

   https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691169248/an...

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4. raintreesFeb 2019
   Likely listed elsewhere, from the article for convenience:

   Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife

   Measurement - Paul Lockhart

   Prelude to Mathematics - W. W. Sawyer

   Proofs from The Book - Aigner and Ziegler

   The Joy of x - Steven Strogatz

   Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension - Matt Parker

   What is Mathematics? - Courant and Robbins

   A History of PI - Petr Beckmann

   An Imaginary Tale - Paul Nahin

   e: The Story of a Number - Eli Maor

   Imagining Numbers - Barry Mazur

   Journey Through Genius - William Dunham

   Prime Obsession - John Derbyshire

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5. jimmy1Feb 2019
   I liked the Better Explained books, particularly for Calculus, as it really explained the "why"

   For Linear Algebra, "Linear Algebra Done Right" -- way better than my college lin alg course.

   For "general mathematics", I like books that read almost like novels to really grasp the "why" of mathematics, so these are more to embellish your general understanding of "what is the point" type questions -- so things here like Euclid's Window come to mind, and "An Imaginary Tale: The story of square root minus one" will help explain complex numbers in more detail than you ever cared. Reading about the history of mathematics and the writings of some of the greats, like Rene Descartes, Lehonard Euler, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Issac Newton (the amazing thing is all these greats lived within a century of each other)

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6. chess19Aug 2018
   You could look for a math history book (such as "An Imaginary Tale" by Nahin) or something like the Princeton Companion to Mathematics or frankly any other popular math book written by established mathematicians.
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