Anyone know any good geometry books?

[lionely]

My geometry is pretty weak and I want to strengthen it.. because the other day my math teacher asked me what a tetrahedron was and I didn't know ...

I've been desperately looking for this book "Geometry for the Practical Man" by J.E. Thompson.

I have all the other books in the series and they're fun to read so far.

So does anyone know any books which approach geometry like in the other books by Mr.Thompson?

 

[Dowland]

I have no idea what the approach is in Thompson's book but I studied elementary geometry from Harold Jacob's "Geometry" (1st edition). It was really a great book that taught me a lot. It can come across as a bit too easy sometimes and the author doesn't let you prove many theorems completely by yourself but I solved that problem by trying to prove some theorems on my own after having read only the statements. You should also check out "Geometry" by Serge Lang and Gene Murrow, it seems a little bit harder and treats a broader scope of geometry (such as coordinate geometry, vectors, etc).

 

[lionely]

Hmm Vectors in 3 dimensions as well?

 

[lionely]

Also are these books available in ebook form? because I have no money atm to buy these books.
The old books cost a lot! Ranging from like 50 USD ~ 115USD

 

[lionely]

After a little searching I found "Geometry" by Serge and Gene 2nd edition. I hope this is good enough because I can't find the other book by Jacob.

 

[Dowland]

Yes, I think Lang's book touches a bit on vectors in 3D. You should be able to find a used copy of Jacob's book on abebooks for instance.

 

[Snicker]

Geometry for the Practial Man is a good book, keep searching. However, my recommendation would be Kiselev's Geometry (published originally in 1892, it is in its 41st edition), which exists in two volumes, Planimetry and Stereometry. I also like Byrne's unique printing of the first six books of The Elements. Also good are Coxeter's Introduction to Geometry and Geometry Revisited and Hilbert's and Cohn-Vossen's Geometry and the Imagination.

 

[dustbin]

It is Harold Jacobs, not Jacob. This is a really good book, but it will probably feel slow and somewhat childish. I recommend the first edition. I second the recommendation for Kiselev's texts. Lang/Murrow is also good, but I've read little of it. I wouldn't recommend the mentioned books by Coxeter until you've read one of these other books first (or even more).

I've heard great things about The Art of Problem Solving books. They have an introductory geometry text that is probably excellent (and sufficiently challenging). I've seen it in public library systems available for request (so you could use it for free). There are also free texts listed here.

 

[mathwonk]

here are some used copies of harold jacobs' book for $10 - $15:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=harold+jacobs&sts=t&tn=geometryAOPS Geometry is pretty good too, but the best book is Euclid's Elements, especially the Green Lion edition:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1888009195/?tag=pfamazon01-20

My free notes may help as a guide:

http://www.math.uga.edu/~roy/camp2011/10.pdf