The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why

Honestly pretty great!! Lot of books tell you how to do exactly the formulas you need to solve certain problems, but very few books. Tell you easy ways to think about the math involved. Reading this to learn easy ways to think about the math, makes it easier to practically skip steps and save time. This was honestly hugely beneficial to me when studying for the GRE.

I love this book, and my 13yr old son loves it. He is far ahead of his class in math, and I've always been frustrated, trying to challenge him and meet his love for math without pushing him even further ahead and causing more boredom in class. This book is perfect. It is highly challenging, but in a way that is far different from what is taught in school. Lots of fun number tricks, like how to quickly compute the square of any 2-digit number in your head. My son has been into magic, and the author compares math to magic, which is really inviting and accessible. With that said, my son is really excited by it, but I was lost after a few chapters. It goes very deeply into mathematical ideas, and is only for those who truly enjoy this. FYI, the other great outlet we found for him was this book of 3D Sodoku puzzles: 3D Sudoku

I am teaching 4th graders, who are aspiring Mental Math Magicians. The examples in this book go more in depth than "Mental Math", covering content nicely. The students are working on their 25 x 25 multiplication and division tables, and will love this. I just purchased a second, hardcover copy, to have on hand as a back-up for my Kindle. I only do this with the books that deserve the permanent status of a resource to keep on hand.

To say my math skills are severely limited (I wasn’t able to take classes beyond first year algebra and plain geometry) would be an understatement. But I have a nephew, Elijah, who recently turned nine who knows more than I ever did and, probably, more than most adults I know. When he goes to a friend’s house and brings something to play with, it’s usually a math book. When I saw a blurb for THE MAGIC OF MATH by Arthur Benjamin, I thought he might find it challenging and interesting. I don’t know about the challenging part, but he found it very interesting. One of his teachers told me he did one of the problems on the board and, when she had trouble keeping up with him, he brought the book to school to show it to her. I recently visited him and interviewed him about what he thought of the book. These are his responses: I think it is a really interesting book. It gives theorems and then proves them. It gives a number of math tricks and it tells you how it happened and why and why you always get the same answer. It also has a thing called “asides.” They are aside from the real mathematics. They are words related to the topic and are really interesting. I’d recommend this book to a person who likes math and wants to find out why. I jumped around and looked at things that were interesting. I liked “See page.....” I’d give it four stars because it’s not the best book I’ve ever read. It is good. I would have moved around the asides. I’d be interested in reading other books by him. Of course, I would like for him to be my math teacher. Elijah also said he’d be interested in going to Harvey Mudd.

So easy to read, I be saying daaaaamn, through out, and.... I looove math. I’d find myself smiling from time to time because of great discoveries and plus the author is so funny 🤣 I love math, I look at math problems now and I’m like 🙄 where else at first I’d feel my heart sink , so definitely get it, if it was food I’d say it’s delicious I went through the book first without trying to solve anything, just to try and get what he’s trying to have me understand. Hehe I read a math book like a novel 🤪 then went the second time to work it out with him as I went along. Calculus be a regular meal now hellooo?!😊

This is an all around book that is great at different levels. It is well written and concise and a little humor doesn't hurt. I haven't had time to finish the book, but a cursory look tells me I've got some very interesting topics ahead of me. I will definitely reread the book after I finish it the first time. Not surprisingly, the author is also an extraordinary instructor. Had I already finished reading the book I would have been able to write a more comprehensive review. Nevertheless, from looking over the book, the 5 star rating remains.

Really like this book, good for people who speak Math. As teaching my 2nd grader, 7th Grader and College Freshmen children math, it has nice shortcuts to understanding how to get from a complicated problem to a much simpler problem, however, it is still math. You need a reasonable foundation in math to understand this book going forward. I have a degree in math so it's fun for me!

I don't really know who the audience for this book is because it see-saws from giving the reader a more thorough hand-holding explanation on math concepts, which is important for people who went through the American public education system, to making leaps of logic with little explanation on others. There is a notable point in the book where it seems to abandon teaching "magic" and becomes another poorly written math book. There is a lot of breadth in these 300 pages, but the tradeoff in depth leaves readers who are looking for the "magic" confused.

面白い本だ。数学も英語で読むと分かったような気がするから不思議。次は「ＷＨＹ ＭＡＴＨ」を読もう。

Very good book for explaining the magic of numbers in all mathematical academia.

Makes math fun. There was a lot of information I didn't know and new ways of looking at some things I did.

This book is absolutely meant for maths lovers. Do u know the proof for why (-)*(-) is (+). If no, then u should buy this book.

Muito bom! Gostei das propriedades "matemágicas" do 9, das séries infinitas, dos quadrados mágicos, da demonstração da equação de Euler! Este livro é indicado, também, para não especialistas. A linguagem é clara.