Rating: 
Summary: Definately the greatest
Review: I was hoping the book would include a thorough reference for mathematical notation and symbols, but it doesn't. No list of methematical symbols, no table to the Greek alphabet, etc. It's frustrating when you encounter a new symbol in a text and you don't know what it means; and it's difficult to look it up when you don't know what it's called. ... Aside from that, quite an interesting book. Lots of interesting terms I never knew existed. For example, any idea what a "McNugget Number" is? Get the book and find out! :-) ... If the website were still online I probably would have bought the book anyway; websites are good for a quick lookup, books are good for longer reading. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, missing a few things
Review: I was hoping the book would include a thorough reference for mathematical notation and symbols, but it doesn't. No list of methematical symbols, no table to the Greek alphabet, etc. It's frustrating when you encounter a new symbol in a text and you don't know what it means; and it's difficult to look it up when you don't know what it's called. ... Aside from that, quite an interesting book. Lots of interesting terms I never knew existed. For example, any idea what a "McNugget Number" is? Get the book and find out! :-) ... If the website were still online I probably would have bought the book anyway; websites are good for a quick lookup, books are good for longer reading. ...
Rating:
Summary: Boycott CRC - use the on-line version instead
Review: I wish I had known about how evil and unethical the people at CRC are before I bought this book from .... You can read the sordid details on the web site for the book mathworld.wolfram.com. As for the book and CD, it is a great resource; I'll take the other reviewers' word for it not being as rigorous or complete as a professional mathematician would want -- most people who need a book like this are not professional matheticians (why would a professional mathetician even need any math encyclopedia anyway?).
Rating: 
Summary: Scientists should never support dishonesty
Review: I'm not giving this book 1 star because its a bad book! I'm giving this book 1 star because you shouldn't under any circumstances buy it (in my opinion of course). The book is a compilation of the mathematical artices compiled by Weisstein over many years. It is the most complete collection of introductory mathematics you can imagine, with ever expanding detail, and contributions from a large number of different writers. I could effuse about the content for hours: it has saved my mathematical bacon on very many occasions, and remains my major reference to new areas of math. This book, while being a new edition, still only contains a small fraction of Eric's content. The complete contents of this book, instantly and easily searchable, with cross references, links to other topics and sites, and incorporating animations is all available at the mathword.wolfram.com website. It is all available free of charge, and is constantly edited and updated. In addition, a huge amount of extra material is there which couldn't be contained in this book. A previous reviewer alluded to the fact that Eric, when trying to publish his website (which was always a website, long before he signed the deal for the book, and was given special dispensation in the publishing contract), was sued by the publisher of this book and told to take his site down. Although I can see it from the publishers point of view, their attitude towards this key resource was undoubtedly callous and cynical. I'd really recommend you use his excellent website. If you feel bad that Eric isn't getting his royalty from your purchase: send him a cheque for $5.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Math Book Ever
Review: If you are only going to own one math book, this should be it. This book has more math/page then any other book, and it is written in such a fun way. If you thought that math was boring, you will change your mind, browsing through this book. If you already love math, you will love it even more!
Rating:
Summary: Very Good and Accesible
Review: The best ever published encyclopedia of mathematics! (Various sources cited, not only westerners, and understandable by any researcher.) A POPULAR book which sould be in any library of sciences. We mailed copies of it to Romania and China. M.L.Perez
Rating:
Summary: Best reference book ever!
Review: This book contains the work of the history of the world in mathematics! It is all packed into this not-so-tiny hardcover. It is great as a reference book, and even to browse around if you wish. Everything you can think of is inside.
Rating: 
Summary: One-person's work are very limited as an Encyclopedia
Review: This book is quite impressive as a personal note, but does not deserve to be considered as anything formal as being a dictionary or encyclopedia. The information are way too idiosyncratic and contains too many factual errors, ommisions, and misleadings. I strongly advise you not to buy the first edition. As of 1999, the definitive math encyclopedia in English is still Ecyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics (EDM), published by MIT Press. Unfortunately, EDM is written for mathematicians, and is not up-to-date (it was translated from Japanese in 1977.). It is quite hopeless for such massive work as this to be up-to-date. EDM gives an very dense outline and definitions for almost all (modern) math areas. Each section is written by an expert in that area. If you have an undergraduate degree in math, buy EDM. If your math interest is recreational, then Eric's can be enjoyable. Xah Lee
Rating:
Summary: A really wonderful book
Review: This is a really wonderful book, especially created for people who prefere to read papers instead of computer screens. The book evovlved on the Internet, which is the only place where such an encyclopedic work created by one man can flourish. For about a year the Internet parallel of the book was closed, but now you can enjoy the book in both its versions.
Rating:
Summary: Definately the greatest
Review: This is definately the greatest book ever written. U can look up almost anything and it's got a formula. And whats more the writing is pithic! I can not reccomend this book too highly to all intelligent readers. Buy it now!
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