need some advice for math books

AdrianZ

Hi
well I'm a high school graduate. I need some books about Real Analysis, Topology, Complex numbers and number theory. I just want to have a glimpse of such topics, I don't want to study pure mathematics. I just study mathematics because I'm interested and I don't want something so advanced that I can't understand it.

thank you

AdrianZ

anyone?

Daverz

Looking around on Amazon, I found this:

http://www.amazon.com/Transition-Adv...dp/0195310764/

There's All the Mathematics You Missed But Need to Know for Graduate School, but that's obviously for gradual students. I have this, and it is somewhat useful for jogging the memory.

Petek

You might want to consider The Princeton Companion to Mathematics. It covers all the topics you mentioned and more.

Petek

AdrianZ

Thank you but I doubt the books you said cover topology. I checked both of them and they are good, especially the first one, but none of them talks about topology.

deluks917

Mendelson Introduction to topology is a fairly easy (compared to most stuff recommended on this site) read. However its still a math textbook.

Fragment

What is Mathematics? by Courant

It will satisfy all your needs, even topology. It is accessible, and actually can be used as a refresher, it even has practice problems.

n!kofeyn

creative mathematics by h.s. wall is a book that teaches you mathematics in a self-contained way. it is a non-standard book and sounds like a good fit for you if you just want to work through some mathematics and complete proofs in your spare time. the text leads you through basic properties of real numbers, through calculus, and all the way to differential equations and differential geometry (though in unfamiliar forms). when you're done, you will have basically set up the entire theory of the book yourself, as you are required to verify almost every result yourself. it's worth taking a look at.

if you don't know how to do proofs, set theory, or even calculus, then i don't think learning real analysis, topology, and complex analysis will be very fruitful, as you will be missing much of the motivation of these subjects.