An Imaginary Tale: The Story of "i" the Square Root of Minus One: Amazon.co.uk: Paul J. Nahin: Books

Review

A book-length hymn of praise to the square root of minus one. -- Brian Rotman, Times Literary Supplement

An Imaginary Tale is marvelous reading and hard to put down. Readers will find that Nahin has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the use of complex numbers. -- Victor J. Katz, Science

[An Imaginary Tale] can be read for fun and profit by anyone who has taken courses in introductory calculus, plane geometry and trigonometry. -- William Thompson, American Scientist

Someone has finally delivered a definitive history of this 'imaginary' number. . . . A must read for anyone interested in mathematics and its history. -- D. S. Larson, Choice

Attempting to explain imaginary numbers to a non-mathematician can be a frustrating experience. . . . On such occasions, it would be most useful to have a copy of Paul Nahin's excellent book at hand. -- A. Rice, Mathematical Gazette

Imaginary numbers! Threeve! Ninety-fifteen! No, not those kind of imaginary numbers. If you have any interest in where the concept of imaginary numbers comes from, you will be drawn into the wonderful stories of how i was discovered. -- Rebecca Russ, Math Horizons

There will be something of reward in this book for everyone. -- R.G. Keesing, Contemporary Physics

Nahin has given us a fine addition to the family of books about particular numbers. It is interesting to speculate what the next member of the family will be about. Zero? The Euler constant? The square root of two? While we are waiting, we can enjoy An Imaginary Tale. -- Ed Sandifer, MAA Online

Paul Nahin's book is a delightful romp through the development of imaginary numbers. -- Robin J. Wilson, London Mathematical Society Newsletter

Review

A book-length hymn of praise to the square root of minus one. -- Brian Rotman, Times Literary Supplement An Imaginary Tale is marvelous reading and hard to put down. Readers will find that Nahin has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the use of complex numbers. -- Victor J. Katz, Science [An Imaginary Tale] can be read for fun and profit by anyone who has taken courses in introductory calculus, plane geometry and trigonometry. -- William Thompson, American Scientist Someone has finally delivered a definitive history of this 'imaginary' number... A must read for anyone interested in mathematics and its history. -- D. S. Larson, Choice Attempting to explain imaginary numbers to a non-mathematician can be a frustrating experience... On such occasions, it would be most useful to have a copy of Paul Nahin's excellent book at hand. -- A. Rice, Mathematical Gazette Imaginary numbers! Threeve! Ninety-fifteen! No, not those kind of imaginary numbers. If you have any interest in where the concept of imaginary numbers comes from, you will be drawn into the wonderful stories of how i was discovered. -- Rebecca Russ, Math Horizons There will be something of reward in this book for everyone. -- R.G. Keesing, Contemporary Physics Nahin has given us a fine addition to the family of books about particular numbers. It is interesting to speculate what the next member of the family will be about. Zero? The Euler constant? The square root of two? While we are waiting, we can enjoy An Imaginary Tale. -- Ed Sandifer, MAA Online Paul Nahin's book is a delightful romp through the development of imaginary numbers. -- Robin J. Wilson, London Mathematical Society Newsletter --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Good, but you have to work at reading it 8 Feb 2008

By Suffolk Cyclist

Format:Paperback

If I had never read any of Eli Maor's excellent books I would have scored this book as 5 stars. It is a very good book that guides you through a series of difficult mathematical concepts without being a textbook. It is very readable, but it is peppered with 'roadblocks' where you suddenly have to pay a lot more attention, and possibly re-read sections, before you can proceed. It also, despite being a new 'bugs removed' edition, has at least one grammatical error which makes a paragraph hard to follow.

Having said all that, it really is a very good book. It is just that I have been spoiled by Eli Maor's books, which cover similar ground (trigonometry, e) in a similar way (history, characters, mathematical ideas, related concepts), but manage to make it an effortless joy for the reader. This book somehow never became a joy to read.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

Fantastic! Thorough, scholarly, interesting! 5 Mar 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is an excellent, beautiful book! Just the section on Kepler's laws is worth the price of the book (hardcover to boot!)

If you like math, if you are willing to spend a bit of time understanding the wonderful results -- get it! Some calculus background needed -- nothing beyond high school.

The book goes well beyond providing a narrative on the history of "square root of -1". It actually shows in complete detail how to use "i" to do wonderful things. Along the way the author provides the important historical events and plenty of notes and references for anyone interested in getting some more. It is clear the author took his time to research and study the subject. He has presented it well, thouroghly, and in an interesting way -- without sacrificing detail!

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

Disappointing presentation of the material 14 Oct 2002

I read this book on the back of having just finished Eli Maor's excellent "To infinity and beyond". Unlike Maor's book, "An imaginary tale" is poorly written and presented. While Maor has a fluid and engrossing writing style, Nahin is much less convincing. The material is all there, but it's the presentation with which I have a problem. It's not all bad -- the chapter on the geometry of i is well done, for example, but that's the exception rather than the rule. Another problem is the poor quality of the diagrams. Cubic curves are hastily drawn freehand. Right angled triangles don't always have right angles, and so on. On the whole, I came away with an impression of a book with lots of potential, but most of it left unrealised.