Good calc/math refresher/puzzle book?

[LHH]

I'm looking for a book which might serve as a good refresher course in basic to more advanced math topics, something that might be fun and which might also require the use of a good calculator, HP of course. Anybody have any recommendations?

Thanks,

LHH

[John B. Smitherman]

I like "The Joy of Mathematics", "More Joy of Mathematics" and "The Mathematics Calendar 2012" all by Theoni Pappas.

John

[LHH]

I was about to order the calendar but read some less-than-positive reviews and decided to keep looking. I'll investigate the books and maybe re-think the calendar too.

Thanks for the suggestions!

LHH

[Valentin Albillo]

Quote:

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I'm looking for a book which might serve as a good refresher course in basic to more advanced math topics, something that might be fun and which might also require the use of a good calculator, HP of course. Anybody have any recommendations?

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Yes. I'd heartily recommend this one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Numbers-John-Conway/dp/038797993X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338318971&sr=1-1

It's utterly fascinating, quite aesthetically presented math stuff of the recreational kind which will have you rush for your HP calculator within five minutes of opening it.

Regards.
V.

[Peter Murphy (Livermore)]

Several calculator-based examinations from the annual University of Houston math contests can be found here:

http://mathcontest.uh.edu/

The contests assume TI-89 calculators, if I recall correctly. They should provide plenty of good refresher exercises in the use of an HP 50g, and more challenging tasks for a 48 series or earlier HP.

[LHH]

My search has resulted in about a dozen books in my Amazon shopping cart so far but I'll need to reduce that to 1-2 before I press the "Checkout" button. All the suggestions look interesting as do a number of others I have found by accident. Running through these tests though has made me realize just how much refreshing I'm going to need at this point! I'm not doing too badly so far but I'm not considering the time factor which would lower my score considerably. I guess over all these years quite a few of my math brain cells have been retasked or moved on to greener pastures. :( Luckily the challenges are more fun this time around so maybe there is hope for me yet.

I do appreciate all the thoughts and suggestions!

LHH

[Don Shepherd]

Here is one more you might find interesting. It is written in an easy-to-understand style, and it clearly explains the math behind some famous disasters, like Challenger, Apollo 13, and the hotel walkway collapse of many years ago.