W. W. Sawyer – författare

Brief, clear, and well written, this introductory treatment bridges the gap between traditional and modern algebra. A carefully devised progression from the concrete to the abstract demystifies the subject, offering worked examples and to-the-point explanations. The text is supplemented with exercises and complete solutions, and the only prerequisite is high school-level algebra.

A noted educator's account of some of the more stimulating and surprising branches of mathematics, this volume profiles the mathematical mind and the aims of mathematics. Five introductory chapters offer conceptual groundwork, and subsequent chapters present lucid, accessible explorations of non-Euclidean geometry, matrices, determinants, group theory, and related topics. 1955 edition.

Professor Sawyer's book is based on a course given to the majority of engineering students in their first year at Toronto University. Its aim is to present the important ideas in linear algebra to students of average ability whose principal interests lie outside the field of mathematics; as such it will be of interest to students in other disciplines as well as engineering. The emphasis throughout is on imparting an understanding of the significance of the mathematical techniques and great care has therefore been taken to being out the underlying ideas embodied in the formal calculations. In those places where a rigorous treatment would be very long and wearisome, an explanation rather than a complete proof is provided, the reader being warned that in a more formal treatment such results would need to be be proved. The book is full of physical analogies (many from fields outside the realm of engineering) and contains many worked and unworked examples, integrated with the text.