gnuplot is an excellent scientific package for visualizing data and plotting functions. Despite its name, it has nothing to do with the GNU project, even though it’s Open Source and entirely free. This tool is very handy whenever you need to produce production quality graphics from a given data-set (or...

Imagine a rope that was just long enough to wrap tightly around the equator of a perfectly spherical earth. Now imagine that the length of that rope is increased by one meter and again wrapped around the earth, supported in a regular way, so as to form an annulus. Doing things in this way will form a certain...

It has been a while since my last book recommendation. I’ll take the opportunity of the Easter longer weekend to write about two books that were recently released and I just finished reading. The first one is an atypical Calculus book, while the second one is a popular mathematics title which is...

While I’m very busy at work and in my daily life, I’ve managed to start reading a new mathematical novel. It’s called A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel and is published by the Princeton University Press. I’ve read only a few chapters but I must say that I’m really...

1. The Tenth Dimension 2. Outside in (Turning a sphere inside out) 3. Flatland the film (Trailer) The full movie is available on DVD, and of course, you can also get “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, dirt cheap (a classic geek novel for less than 4 bucks). If you prefer, you could...

I love books with the ability to inspire readers. Many non-mathematicians consider mathematics as something abstruse and complicated, suitable only for ‘nerds’. Often I highlight the unfounded nature of this prejudice, but nothing is more effective at disproving this stigma than a good book. I...

In my first article “The most enlightening Calculus books”, I argued the importance of maintaining high standards for mathematics education and suggested deep and inspiring calculus books for those of you who are interested in pursuing the joy of learning mathematics. The feedback has been...

In Walter Rudin’s autobiography The Way I Remember It, he comments on a calculus book defining it as “too good to be widely used” and further states that: Widely used calculus books must be mediocre. — W. Rudin The temptation to discard that statement as elitist may be strong, but it...