I really enjoyed this book and found it incredibly interesting to read, it has a lot of information in it but I think it is accessible to the general public and it is not too overwhelming even though it involves math, something that many people have trouble understanding.

This is a book written for those who already know and love mathematics. The book is well-crafted and raises some interesting topics for discussion, but don't expect to fall in love with mathematics by reading it.

As someone more than familiar with the language and challenges of teaching and learning mathematics, I had quite high expectations about. This book was a nice try but far from being satisfactory.

An interesting book that begins with an error on its cover makes this reader doubt the usefulness of the book. First of all, the error - the author’s name, as best I can tell, is spelled wrong. Now, this does not define the entire book, but does make one want to read it carefully.

I did find the book of interest. It is written to a beginning master’s level mathematician. It might be handled by a well-equipped calculus student with a bit of exposure to differential equations, ultimately the focus seems to be helping the student jumping into his final years of training to see the parallels between mathematics and the physical world. The author firmly that this connection to the physical world should become the real motivation for studying mathematics.

Currently mathematics is taught like Latin, without motivation, restricted to the period from Euclid in the BC to the Renaissance. Those few proceeding to university mathematics and mathematical physics are re-educated without benefit of previous orientation while the rest are abandoned to popularisations. This is not right …

The author attempts to weave mathematics with these physical concepts that either underlay or that are supported by the mathematical truths. The book, obviously, does not a cover entire field of math or physics, but enough parallels are drawn to aid the student or teacher to take these initial thoughts further.

I do wish the book included a bit more documentation, allowing the student to continue his or own self-study of the topics presented. Too much material is presented as “common knowledge” that might be so to the fully trained mathematician, but not to the student making progress through the field. That being said, the book is readable - provided the student has a basic understanding of the mathematics. However, once the reader reaches the point where his mathematics training has progressed, a set of good math texts will be needed to fill in some of the gaps.

Physicists and mathematicians would do well to find ways to add this book to their courses as a supplementary text. Those already in the field will find the book to be of help understanding the contribution each has made to their respective fields.
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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions are mine alone.

I did not like it at all. I mean, I love math, I am not good at it but I love numbers and theorems and how everything fits. This books is kind of a mess, it starts talking about math as if you already know everything (then why bother reading this in the first place?), it starts with the premise os Let's teach the truth, but I do not agree at all, and certainly he does not teach anything because for every short conclusion, instead of "Teaching the truth" s he says, he simply replies..."This is how the universe works". Excuse me? He may as well say, "Have faith and believe in god" and quite frankly, i do not care at all being treated like an idiot or someone so dumb that has to accept thing because you cannot understand them any better or cannot explain them any better. He claims to techs the truth but unable to do so. Completely worthless. Sorry

I strongly applaud the sentiment and energy behind the creation of this book. I distinctly remember wondering, post-school, why on earth we hadn't been taught more up-to-date facts there - especially when so many are so exciting! Hence I think that trying to explain some of the more recent mathphysics discoveries to sixth formers or the popular science reader is a great idea.

However, I distinctly remember our sixth form A level Maths class coming quite unstuck when a temporary mathematics teacher went off-piste for fun.

So I think it's a hard thing to do and while I like the overview of what has been aimed for, I am not sure that this book works at the moment.

Has it been tried out on a sample of sixth formers, for instance? I suspect they might struggle with and be put off by some of the content appearing too difficult. I do like the light touch of the author but I think some of the necessary explanations of the mathematics may have suffered as a result of it. Maybe some of the new notations could be explained separately to the main text to avoid getting sidetracked from the main purpose of the text?

In addition, the book does seem to jump about sometimes, rather than being absolutely clear about what it is explaining and why.

I think that there is a good book in here - I like its purpose and the topics covered very much. But I feel that some firm editing and proofreading is necessary before it reaches its potential.

Many thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in return for a true and fair review.

As a mathematician, I find this book full of enthusiasm but poor on detail. Topics I know well are poorly presented. The changes of typeface are just annoying. It needs a complete rewrite.

This book was a disappointment to me. Although all the history and equations in the book are correct and sound, the author had failed to interest me as a reader. If I were to be a person who is curious, this would probably put me to sleep instead.
I have read numerous mathematics books, and have an interest in simpler differential calculus and algebra, so I can safely say that this falls below par. The writing lacks a certain passion (I am sure the author loves this subject) that carries the reader forward.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was okay. I liked the premise behind the book. As a mathematics educator, I was looking for a different perspective on strategies and connections that would help my students see the importance of mathematics in our world. The book's writing is easy to understand, though the mathematical explanations are not always as easy to follow. The book is really about the history of mathematics, though not a complete history. The focus is on popular names whose findings impacted mathematics and helped pave the way for quantum mechanics. I did like how the author spoke of discoveries that were outdated and corrected by more modern research. I also liked how the author shows the flow of the mathematics that was only made possible through previous findings. There were certain times that the author seemed to have a blase attitude about the content, as though the material was not worth his time to explore it further, or maybe ran out of time. I don't know if it was the author's intent to come off in such a way, but it was disappointing. I enjoyed the illustrations that went along with the content. I think that this book is a good start, but should be fleshed out more with special consideration to the explanations. 2.5 stars

I probably studied too much mathematics with the "old" system to appreciate the new one proposed by the author. I found the book lacking a coherent path in its development and with a few questionable statements, like.

"ALL HIGHER MATHEMATICS AND MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS WORKS WITH NUMBERS OF THE FORM (a + bi). THAT IS HOW THE UNIVERSE IS STRUCTURED. NO ONE KNOWS WHY."

I liked the specific topics chosen by the author too (quantum mechanics, general and special relativity etc.). The references to the latest research (as new as 2016) also helped in solidifying the authenticity of the book. The questions and answers section at the end of each chapter was good to see too.

While this was good, I felt that the explanations were lacking. I am an engineer and have studied these topics before. I found some of these chapters to be abstruse and terse. This book can become so much better if there are more detailed explanations and examples.

I was drawn to this book by its core concept i.e. the mathematics being taught in school nowadays is out of date and we must learn the advancements in the last 100 years. I understand where the author is coming from since I have experienced this in my school and college days.

Once this book is fully fleshed out (it feels like a draft now), this will be a book worth reading. I would like to see the author explaining some of the more complex math used, more anecdotes, and applications of these. Hold on until then.

Why couldn’t this book and this author been around to teach me math when I was growing up? I struggled GREATLY for years with math and gradually lost interest in even attempting to study math and science subjects because I thought I wasn’t smart enough to learn. Eventually in college when taking algebra was standing between me and my degree I finally found a professor who worked with me, tested me and realized the problem wasn’t that I couldn’t understand numbers it was that my brain processed them differently than the common way of how it’s taught. Once he figured out how I learned math came alive for me and a whole new world opened up.

Now I have a daughter on the Autism spectrum who loves math as much as I did and whose hero is Einstein. She studies math like it’s a game to play with so I wanted to read this book to encourage her love of it and help her so she doesn’t lose her interest and talent with it.

You’re treated to a history of Mathematics which makes Einstein and pals seem personable and full of life. Fun illustrations and soul inspiring anecdotes create visual lessons that make the subject come alive and washes the dust off as it’s brought out from the boring bins of a decaying way of teaching it has been relegated to.

Irrational numbers, square roots, relativity, quantum mechanics, the gravitational wave and the combination of Physics and Mathematics suddenly become easy to comprehend. Cameron writes with this eloquence and ease of understanding so you end up flipping pages like you’re reading a suspense thriller desperate to get to the end so you know all the answers.

Professors need to read this and put it into practice. Elementary and secondary teachers need to do the same so we can encourage a love and understanding of Math the way its founders and admirers meant for it to have. Current generations need to be brought up to appreciate its beauty rather than get lost in a rabbit hole of boredom because even the teachers can’t seem to find an enthusiasm to teach beyond the outmoded lesson plans of yesterday.