Some nice introductory/expository papers
On Math Overflow, someone asked for “A single paper everyone should read?”
and some answers were particularly nice to read for me, so I repeat it for you, ordered by how much math is needed (from none up to little):
- Paul Lockhart: “A Mathematician’s Lament” shares my opinion about the math eduction disaster in schools. I think you should read this if you disliked your math classes in school or if you will ever have children (who will have to take a math class, then).
- Terry Tao: “What is good mathematics?” which is a short (10 pages) paper about the benefit we have from mathematicians different tastes and approaches. I recommend to every scientist reading the first 3 pages (the other 7 pages are only understandable with some background in mathematics).
- Freeman Dyson: “Birds and Frogs” which is a must-read for anyone interested in history and/or progress of mathematics.
- Misha Gromov: “Spaces and Questions” which is readable with almost no background, although might be funnier if you know basic differential geometry. It tells a dense story of geometric ideas and their development in history. And it doesn’t take much time to read/skim it.
- Timothy Chow: A beginner’s guide to forcing is a really gentle introduction to forcing.
Math Overflow is a new community website where mathematicians can discuss research problems. It is based on Stack Exchange, the software powering Stack Overflow, which does the same for computer science.
Maybe related posts
Write a comment
You have to log in to write comments. Sorry. Everybody can register!
