Abstract
MR. BAKST'S mathematics do not go beyond elementary trigonometry and kinetics, so his book is not likely to attract adult readers outside the teaching profession. But a good many children would find it a real help with their elementary arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, and would pick up a fair amount of elementary physics while doing so. Mr. Bakst reverses the usual order of presentation by beginning with an example and deducing the principle concerned. Thus geometric series are introduced by chain letters and Australian rabbits, kinetics by graphs of railway time-tables, and so on. The whole book is interlarded with jokes, a few of which are good. It would be a valuable addition to most school libraries. But if I were a mathematical master I should recommend my brighter pupils to read Hogben's “Mathematics for the Million”, and offer a prize for finding the largest number of mistakes in “Mathematics, its Magic and Mastery”. I have detected them on pages 68, 327, and 638, and I expect there are plenty more. Perhaps there is a negative correlation between wisecracking and accuracy. Mathematics Its Magic and Mastery. By Aaron Bakst. Pp. xiv + 790. (London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1941.) 21s. net.
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