Algebra Can Be Fun | Yakov Perelman

The first edition of Algebra Can Be Fun came out in the nineteen twenties and was destined to

a wonderful future of bringing hundreds of thousands of youngsters into the fold of mathematics and its wonders. It is written in the form of lively sketches that discuss the multifarious (and exciting!) applications of algebra to the world about us. Here we encounter equations, logarithms, roots, progressions, the ancient and famous Diophantine analysis and much more. The examples are pictorial, vivid, often witty and bring out the essence of the matter at hand. There are numerous excursions into history and the history of algebra too. Quite naturally, a number of things sound a bit Old-fashioned—times have changed!—but the efforts of Lenin Prize Winner V. G. Boltyansky, who edited the latest edition and added a good deal of fresh material from the world of computers, have given extra polish to this gem of entertainment. No one who has read this book will ever regard mathematics again in a dull light. Reviewers regard it as one of the finest examples of popular science writing.