Product Description

Celebrating 100 years in print with Cambridge, this newly updated edition includes a foreword by T. W. Körner, describing the huge influence the book has had on the teaching and development of mathematics worldwide. There are few textbooks in mathematics as well-known as Hardy's Pure Mathematics. Since its publication in 1908, this classic book has inspired successive generations of budding mathematicians at the beginning of their undergraduate courses. In its pages, Hardy combines the enthusiasm of the missionary with the rigor of the purist in his exposition of the fundamental ideas of the differential and integral calculus, of the properties of infinite series and of other topics involving the notion of limit. Hardy's presentation of mathematical analysis is as valid today as when first written: students will find that his economical and energetic style of presentation is one that modern authors rarely come close to.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #184708 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 530 pages

Review
"First published in 1908, this classic still gives undergraduate students their first dose of the differential and integral calculus, the properties of infinite series and other notions involving limit. Hardy's nineteenth-century sensibilities and approach based on the "Cambridge way" (which produced such fine mathematicians as Maxwell, Kelvin, Rayleigh and Stokes) may have been eroding as the result of new work on the Continent at the time."
Books News

"Although the sequence of the presentation of the fundamentals of mathematics has changed over the last century, the substance has not. There is no greater evidence of this fact than this classic work by Hardy, which could be used without alteration or additional explanation as a text in modern college mathematics courses... The mathematical influence of G. H. Hardy over mathematical education was and remains strong, as can be seen by reading this masterpiece."
Charles Ashbacher, Journal of Recreational Mathematics

Customer Reviews

The book for a serious student of mathematics
This is the book for a serious student to begin his study of analysis. This is Hardy's timeless masterpiece. There is no other Calculus book even remotely close. The collection of the problems in this book is superb. After you wade through this book, your command of Calculus will be unshakable and your whole view of mathematics could also alter. Hardy made it clear in the preface, "It is in any case a book for mathematicians: I have nowhere made any attempt to meet the needs of students of engineering or indeed any class of students whose interests are not primarily mathematical."

This is one of few math and science books that are a joy to read even after you have mastered the material. What Hardy does for mathematics in this book is what Feynman does for physics in Lectures of Physics.

An Enduring Classic
G. H. Hardy was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. When the first edition of this book appeared in 1908, it was the only comprehensive introduction to analysis in the English language. More than a century later, it remains unsurpassed in that genre in any language.

Elegant, detailed and precise, with perfect prose and proofs, and numerous examples, it reveals the talents of a master mathematician and pedagogue.

I weep in frustration when I see the ridiculous number of poorly conceived and hideously expensive freshman calculus texts whose only claim to modernity are coloured boxes surrounding the equations. The reader patient enough to work through the many exercises in this magnificent volume will have a firm grounding in elementary analysis and feel the immense joy of pure mathematics.

P.S. If you are a first year mathematics student and your faculty expects you to squander your money on one of those "paper weight" calculus books, you should complain loudly!