THE LIFE SCIENCE LIBRARY BOOK OF MATHEMATICS.

By David H. Bergamini '49 and the Editors of LIFE. NewYork: Time, Inc., 1963. 200 pp.

The first volume in Life magazine's new series on the physical and biological sciences is an attractive book with uncommonly fine illustrations. The editors have called for "books with sufficient appeal and persuasive power to enlighten the intelligent but scientifically-uninformed multitudes."

Mr. Bergamini and his associates have answered the call with a book about mathematics from the earliest days of recorded history to the present time. We are presented with a native tribesman who can count no higher than 27 and then with a block diagram for an electronic computer; a discussion of the mathematics of ancient Greece and a portfolio of modern mathematicians (including Dartmouth's John Kemeny - labeled a "Mathematics Missionary"); and on through some ideas of algebra, analytic geometry, mathematics in art, calculus, probability, and topology.

Many of the popular problems, both those solved and those unsolved, are described and illustrated: odds in poker and bridge, the bridges of Königsberg, the four-color problem, how to take off your vest without first removing your coat, and the birthday problem. We are introduced to many of the great mathematicians of history and their ideas are described for us.

The overall effect is pleasing and it should be of interest to the non-mathematician. By reading the book with care, he will learn a great deal about mathematics.

Asst. Prof, of Mathematics