Mathematical Quotations

This is a fun collection of mathematical quotations compiled by a professor at Trent University:

http://euclid.trentu.ca/math/sb/misc/quotes.html

The list includes some classics, such as the following famous remark from John von Neumann:

 “In mathematics, you never understand things; you just get used to them.“

I also like this quote, attributed to Hungarian mathematician Raoul Bott:

“There are two ways to do great mathematics. The first way is to be smarter than everybody else. The second way is to be stupider than everybody else — but persistent.”

To add a favorite recent quote of mine to the list, a teacher was discussing how she used the idea of friendly numbers to help her quickly calculate in her head.  But while explaining the process, she warned us to be careful:  “Remember, what’s friendly to me may not be friendly to you!“.

Free On-Line Calculus Text

A free calculus textbook, “Elementary Calculus:  An Infinitesimal Approach” is available for download here:

http://www.math.wisc.edu/~keisler/calc.html

The book, written by the University of Wisconsin’s Jerome Keisler, seems to take an advanced and rigorous approach to the topic, beginning with an introduction to real and hyperreal numbers (hence the “Infinitesimal Approach”).

The fourteen chapters include the standard Calculus topics, and also multivariable and vector calculus topics such as Vectors and Partial Derivatives.  Every chapter has multiple sets of exercises.

This is a nice resource for the Calculus teacher or the advanced student looking for a rigorous approach to Calculus.

Library of Curves

Witch of AgnesiThis is a nice resource:  a Famous Curves Index, provided by the School of Math and Statistics at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Curves/Curves.html

You can view graphs of the tractrix, Fermat’s Spiral, and Quadratrix of Hippias, and see their various algebraic representations.  Each entry in the Curve Index contains a brief history of the curve, some interesting facts, and links to other related curves.

This collection is similar to another fun resource provided by the same program:  a comprehensive on-line library of biographies of mathematicians.

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