A joy, and not just for mathematicians, 08 Feb 2008
This book is amazing. It takes a very boring and dry subject and makes it accesible and interesting, without ever once 'dumbing down'. This is NOT trigonometry for dummies. This is Trigonometric Delights, and it lives up to its title.

Ranging through historic approaches to trigonometry, coupled with sections on areas that obviously delighted the author when he discovered them, the book never loses the reader, which is an amazing achievement.

If I had to think of who would buy this book, then I would say:
any parent of a child (13-18) finding maths hard/boring/impenetrable
any university student
all maths teachers (especially the part about the unit circle)
anyone who liked Simon Singh's Fermats Last Theorem, but would have
liked to see more of the subject matter and less of the story

Basically, if you are interested enough to be reading a review of this book then you should buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you are not reading reviews about this book, don't buy it.


Very good if expensive!, 18 Oct 2001
The book starts with angles and chords and a description of Plimpton 322. These chapters are good enough but the book seems to get better with each chapter. As a mathematics teacher, I found some of the chapters fantastic and others good, if a little heavy. The chapter "Two theorems from Geometry" states a few things I didn't previously know and made me think a lot!
The book is a little expensive, but like "e: The Story of a Number", the book is well written, interesting and most of all shows beauty in mathematics.
The appendix with a list of trigonometric formulae (not the basic ones you will already know) is wonderful.
If you like trig, get it, if not, you will when you read it!

A joy, and not just for mathematicians, 08 Feb 2008
This book is amazing. It takes a very boring and dry subject and makes it accesible and interesting, without ever once 'dumbing down'. This is NOT trigonometry for dummies. This is Trigonometric Delights, and it lives up to its title.

Ranging through historic approaches to trigonometry, coupled with sections on areas that obviously delighted the author when he discovered them, the book never loses the reader, which is an amazing achievement.

If I had to think of who would buy this book, then I would say:
any parent of a child (13-18) finding maths hard/boring/impenetrable
any university student
all maths teachers (especially the part about the unit circle)
anyone who liked Simon Singh's Fermats Last Theorem, but would have
liked to see more of the subject matter and less of the story

Basically, if you are interested enough to be reading a review of this book then you should buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you are not reading reviews about this book, don't buy it.


Very good if expensive!, 18 Oct 2001
The book starts with angles and chords and a description of Plimpton 322. These chapters are good enough but the book seems to get better with each chapter. As a mathematics teacher, I found some of the chapters fantastic and others good, if a little heavy. The chapter "Two theorems from Geometry" states a few things I didn't previously know and made me think a lot!
The book is a little expensive, but like "e: The Story of a Number", the book is well written, interesting and most of all shows beauty in mathematics.
The appendix with a list of trigonometric formulae (not the basic ones you will already know) is wonderful.
If you like trig, get it, if not, you will when you read it!

Excellent Review, 07 Sep 1999
A complete outline of trigonometry, increased my final test score a lot.

A joy, and not just for mathematicians, 08 Feb 2008
This book is amazing. It takes a very boring and dry subject and makes it accesible and interesting, without ever once 'dumbing down'. This is NOT trigonometry for dummies. This is Trigonometric Delights, and it lives up to its title.

Ranging through historic approaches to trigonometry, coupled with sections on areas that obviously delighted the author when he discovered them, the book never loses the reader, which is an amazing achievement.

If I had to think of who would buy this book, then I would say:
any parent of a child (13-18) finding maths hard/boring/impenetrable
any university student
all maths teachers (especially the part about the unit circle)
anyone who liked Simon Singh's Fermats Last Theorem, but would have
liked to see more of the subject matter and less of the story

Basically, if you are interested enough to be reading a review of this book then you should buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you are not reading reviews about this book, don't buy it.


Very good if expensive!, 18 Oct 2001
The book starts with angles and chords and a description of Plimpton 322. These chapters are good enough but the book seems to get better with each chapter. As a mathematics teacher, I found some of the chapters fantastic and others good, if a little heavy. The chapter "Two theorems from Geometry" states a few things I didn't previously know and made me think a lot!
The book is a little expensive, but like "e: The Story of a Number", the book is well written, interesting and most of all shows beauty in mathematics.
The appendix with a list of trigonometric formulae (not the basic ones you will already know) is wonderful.
If you like trig, get it, if not, you will when you read it!

Excellent Review, 07 Sep 1999
A complete outline of trigonometry, increased my final test score a lot.

Ideal for graduates or researchers from other fields., 14 Dec 2001
A well worked follow on to the essential Enumerative Combinatorics 1, this book by the world renowned Dick Stanley is a must for any graduate student or non-combinatorial researcher.

A joy, and not just for mathematicians, 08 Feb 2008
This book is amazing. It takes a very boring and dry subject and makes it accesible and interesting, without ever once 'dumbing down'. This is NOT trigonometry for dummies. This is Trigonometric Delights, and it lives up to its title.

Ranging through historic approaches to trigonometry, coupled with sections on areas that obviously delighted the author when he discovered them, the book never loses the reader, which is an amazing achievement.

If I had to think of who would buy this book, then I would say:
any parent of a child (13-18) finding maths hard/boring/impenetrable
any university student
all maths teachers (especially the part about the unit circle)
anyone who liked Simon Singh's Fermats Last Theorem, but would have
liked to see more of the subject matter and less of the story

Basically, if you are interested enough to be reading a review of this book then you should buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you are not reading reviews about this book, don't buy it.


Very good if expensive!, 18 Oct 2001
The book starts with angles and chords and a description of Plimpton 322. These chapters are good enough but the book seems to get better with each chapter. As a mathematics teacher, I found some of the chapters fantastic and others good, if a little heavy. The chapter "Two theorems from Geometry" states a few things I didn't previously know and made me think a lot!
The book is a little expensive, but like "e: The Story of a Number", the book is well written, interesting and most of all shows beauty in mathematics.
The appendix with a list of trigonometric formulae (not the basic ones you will already know) is wonderful.
If you like trig, get it, if not, you will when you read it!

Excellent Review, 07 Sep 1999
A complete outline of trigonometry, increased my final test score a lot.

Ideal for graduates or researchers from other fields., 14 Dec 2001
A well worked follow on to the essential Enumerative Combinatorics 1, this book by the world renowned Dick Stanley is a must for any graduate student or non-combinatorial researcher.

An excellent book, but NOT for a beginner., 01 Jul 2007
Although the book is supposedly addressed to those who "did little or no geometry", I wouldn't start with this book as a beginner. Silvester teaches at King's College, London (I was a student there), and expects his students to have a firm grasp of A-levels maths. You better be comfortable with trig identities, vectors (dot products), function notation and terminology (bijective, etc), basic linear algebra, and basic abstract algebra (groups). Good books to cover the basics are:
1)trig id and vectors (Bostock and Chandler - A Level maths)
2)functions (any basic book on Analysis like that of Binmore)
3)Abstract algebra (Teach yourself mathematical groups by Tony Barnard)
4)Linear Algebra (Howard Anton's Linear Algebra)

Silvester's book is quite compact, so you do need to work through it line by line, and he does provide answers to all the exercises, so that's a huge plus in my book. The book is quite comprehensive for one that "introduces" geometry as a first year university course.

Geometry for beginners??:-s, 04 Jul 2005
With this kind of book, the price is a bit of a rip off. Its actually very compacted, but still, for £25 its a bit much.

I was only meant to buy this book for the sake of my University course, and although it did help a little, I found the wording confusing and also I would never see how a person who had no knowledge of Geometry or mathematics would understand the book. It suggests that anyone could read this book, but I beg to differ.

Good points about this book: Good diagrams and good explanations for them. However the proofs are a bit wordy, and you tend to find that there are too many words on piece of paper and that they are trying to save as many trees as possible.

Ok, but could be better.

A joy, and not just for mathematicians, 08 Feb 2008
This book is amazing. It takes a very boring and dry subject and makes it accesible and interesting, without ever once 'dumbing down'. This is NOT trigonometry for dummies. This is Trigonometric Delights, and it lives up to its title.

Ranging through historic approaches to trigonometry, coupled with sections on areas that obviously delighted the author when he discovered them, the book never loses the reader, which is an amazing achievement.

If I had to think of who would buy this book, then I would say:
any parent of a child (13-18) finding maths hard/boring/impenetrable
any university student
all maths teachers (especially the part about the unit circle)
anyone who liked Simon Singh's Fermats Last Theorem, but would have
liked to see more of the subject matter and less of the story

Basically, if you are interested enough to be reading a review of this book then you should buy it. You will not be disappointed. If you are not reading reviews about this book, don't buy it.


Very good if expensive!, 18 Oct 2001
The book starts with angles and chords and a description of Plimpton 322. These chapters are good enough but the book seems to get better with each chapter. As a mathematics teacher, I found some of the chapters fantastic and others good, if a little heavy. The chapter "Two theorems from Geometry" states a few things I didn't previously know and made me think a lot!
The book is a little expensive, but like "e: The Story of a Number", the book is well written, interesting and most of all shows beauty in mathematics.
The appendix with a list of trigonometric formulae (not the basic ones you will already know) is wonderful.
If you like trig, get it, if not, you will when you read it!

Excellent Review, 07 Sep 1999
A complete outline of trigonometry, increased my final test score a lot.

Ideal for graduates or researchers from other fields., 14 Dec 2001
A well worked follow on to the essential Enumerative Combinatorics 1, this book by the world renowned Dick Stanley is a must for any graduate student or non-combinatorial researcher.

An excellent book, but NOT for a beginner., 01 Jul 2007
Although the book is supposedly addressed to those who "did little or no geometry", I wouldn't start with this book as a beginner. Silvester teaches at King's College, London (I was a student there), and expects his students to have a firm grasp of A-levels maths. You better be comfortable with trig identities, vectors (dot products), function notation and terminology (bijective, etc), basic linear algebra, and basic abstract algebra (groups). Good books to cover the basics are:
1)trig id and vectors (Bostock and Chandler - A Level maths)
2)functions (any basic book on Analysis like that of Binmore)
3)Abstract algebra (Teach yourself mathematical groups by Tony Barnard)
4)Linear Algebra (Howard Anton's Linear Algebra)

Silvester's book is quite compact, so you do need to work through it line by line, and he does provide answers to all the exercises, so that's a huge plus in my book. The book is quite comprehensive for one that "introduces" geometry as a first year university course.

Geometry for beginners??:-s, 04 Jul 2005
With this kind of book, the price is a bit of a rip off. Its actually very compacted, but still, for £25 its a bit much.

I was only meant to buy this book for the sake of my University course, and although it did help a little, I found the wording confusing and also I would never see how a person who had no knowledge of Geometry or mathematics would understand the book. It suggests that anyone could read this book, but I beg to differ.

Good points about this book: Good diagrams and good explanations for them. However the proofs are a bit wordy, and you tend to find that there are too many words on piece of paper and that they are trying to save as many trees as possible.

Ok, but could be better.

A worthy book, 19 Jul 2001
An excellent book that covers a wide ground (see table of contents). I mainly bought it for Trigonometry but the Algebra section proved useful to know beforehand. what I really liked was the step by step instructions to find solutions, so many examples are given then they will say 'now do problem 39'. You do it and get it right and feel happy about it.

I needed to get better at trigonometric functions in order to do calculus and linear algebra. I also feel the book was geard towards that, the author has written a precalculus book also. The book was also fun to go through and has given me enormous confidence. Although the book is huge (at 1000 pages) it wasn't difficult at all.