Choice Review

Beautiful Mathematics is a visually stimulating book, even though the text and images are in black and white. Erickson (Truman State Univ.) is the author/coauthor of several mathematics books, including Pearls of Discrete Mathematics (CH, Apr'10, 47-4469) and Aha! Solutions (CH, May'09, 46-5081). Here he uses graphs, tables, geometric shapes, matrices, and other images to show a variety of concepts. For example, in chapter 5 he uses a tessellation when discussing the Pythagorean theorem. Each chapter is broken into sections that focus on specific topics. In chapter 2, "Intriguing Images," Erickson discusses and displays different illustrations he finds fascinating. A nice feature is that even though this chapter contains ten sections, the chapter is only 12 pages from start to finish, making it easy for browsing. Two appendixes conclude the work. Appendix A gives theorems, definitions, and other background information. Appendix B is broken into two parts, "Problems" and "Solutions," and refers to topics discussed earlier. This book would make a good supplemental resource for students in upper-level math courses. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. K. D. Holton Tallahasee Community College