La matematica è magica? Forse sì, ma nello stesso senso dei prestigiatori: il trucco c'è ma non si vede... a meno che un matemago come Arthur Benjamin ce lo racconti. Questo libro parte dalla proposizione di alcuni trucchi di calcolo mentale, con la spiegazione matematica relativa, per proseguire con una carrellata di temi che si studiano a scuola - almeno in genere, alcuni in realtà sono un po' alieni - cercando sempre di spiegare prima cosa c'è dietro. Dimostrazioni ce ne sono: alcune terminano con una faccina sorridente perché sono "belle", parecchie sono messe in sezioni denominate "a parte" proprio perché non sono il punto fondamentale. Benjamin vuole mostrarci la magia della matematica: il resto si vedrà in seguito, almeno per gli interessati. La traduzione di Davide Calonico è scorrevole, tranne in un paio di punti dove il lettore poco attento si perde... mentre chi è un po' mago dentro si accorge subito di cosa c'era dietro. ( )

Have the students to read this in the beginning of the semester. It will help students who do not like math gain a new interest.

The book starts with some really amazing patterns with addition of integers - something I never knew, but then there are so many things in math that I'm new to. The author provides many tricks that I did during my school days. Some chapters begin with questions and the solution described in the book was simpler than the one I chose.

The discussion about Combinations and Permutations are very well explained. The author divulges the hidden magic among Pascal's triangle and Fibonacci series.

The interconnection between Pi, e, and i is illuminating - fantastically written Mr Benjamin. Reading about Trigonometry was refreshing and same with Calculus.

All in all, this is a book for the 'not-so-mathematical' person. For the math enthusiast, it will serve as a revival. ( )

To say my math skills are severely limited (I wasn’t able to take classes beyond first year algebra and plain geometry) would be an understatement. But I have a nephew, Elijah, who recently turned nine who knows more than I ever did and, probably, more than most adults I know. When he goes to a friend’s house and brings something to play with, it’s usually a math book. When I saw a blurb for THE MAGIC OF MATH by Arthur Benjamin, I thought he might find it challenging and interesting. I don’t know about the challenging part, but he found it very interesting. One of his teachers told me he did one of the problems on the board and, when she had trouble keeping up with him, he brought the book to school to show it to her.
I recently visited him and interviewed him about what he thought of the book. These are his responses:
I think it is a really interesting book. It gives theorems and then proves them. It gives a number of math tricks and it tells you how it happened and why and why you always get the same answer.
It also has a thing called “asides.” They are aside from the real mathematics. They are words related to the topic and are really interesting.
I’d recommend this book to a person who likes math and wants to find out why.
I jumped around and looked at things that were interesting. I liked “See page.....”
I’d give it four stars because it’s not the best book I’ve ever read. It is good. I would have moved around the asides.
I’d be interested in reading other books by him. Of course, I would like for him to be my math teacher.

Elijah also said he’d be interested in going to Harvey Mudd. ( )

Engaging survey course through advanced high school math: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus. Occasionally "punny" but otherwise pretty dry stuff, unless you already have a pretty good aptitude for math. A nice refresher course, though. The chapters on "the magic of 9" and "the magic of counting" were especially fun. ( )