Theory and Application of Infinite Series

Rating:
Summary: How to tell if you are a "formalist" --
Review: Anything to do with "infinity" is fascinating. Much of the history of mathematics has been a duel between those who see "infinity" as a delusion and impediment to progress, and those who see it as the greatest tool in the mathematician's toolbox. Infinite series, which may be loosely defined as sums of an infinite number of terms (numbers), take on some of this fascination. Although this book will appeal mainly to the professional mathematician, there is enough historical and elementary material to profit many college students- and possibly even some high school students.

Professional mathematician will find this book useful for filling in gaps left by topics not covered in traditional courses. An example is the detailed discussion of Euler's summation formula, which goes far beyond the simplified form usually encountered in textbooks. Another fascinating topic covered is divergent series, and methods by which meaningful sums can be assigned to these. There is something counterintuitive -- and, frankly, mind-boggling -- about many of these results.

Mathematicians can be put into several categories: 1) applied-mathematicians/computer-scientists/engineers concerned with solving practical problems, 2) those concerned with pedagogy and the history of mathematics, 3) epistemology and rigorous proofs, and 4) formalists. The fourth category, formalists, is difficult to define, but may be described as those that emphasize obtaining new results through formal (technical) manipulations, without undue concern regarding the meaning of the intermediate steps. The greatest exponents of this art were Euler and Ramanujan, though Fourier, Dirac and Heaviside are also solid members of this camp.

I take this digression because I feel that this book mainly appeals to the fourth type of mathematician. Although there are some general results in the theory of infinite series, any competent mathematicians can, in a few minutes, write a dozen infinite series which defy summation. As an example, the series associated with the Riemann zeta function of EVEN arguments were first summed by Euler. The sums arising from ODD arguments have defied summation to this day. Why this should be so is intriguing, but unknown. Incidentally, Euler's method of summation will make a "rigorists" hair stand upon ends. But he got the job done!

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Marvelous Value
Review: The last chapter on the Euler-MacLauren summation formula, and attendant interrelations among the Zeta function, Bernoulli Numbers and Bernoulli Polynomials is alone worth three times the price of this gem. Chock full of recipes and explanations of many of those little annoying points you don't understand fully. Do you REALLY understand what 'asymptotically equal to (~)' means? Heartily recommended!

Rating:
Summary: This is an ok book
Review: To be honest alot of the work does not make immediate sense. Knopp leaves alot of important details out in his proofs and sometimes tends to rite to informal a proof of theorems. Theres no answers to the questions and i found that i became bored while reading the book. There are better. I have a large collection of books and the infinite series sections or chapters in them are better than alot of this book. I think that its main problem is that it cannot be easily accessible to beginners although it claims this. well apart from the begin chapters.