A good math encyclopedia, or book that briefly DESCRIBES everything in math?

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Apple30

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Are there any good maths encyclopedias available that are not overly cluttered with "history"? The only thing I've been able to find is math dictionaries,

Dictionaries are great for defining, but they're not good at describing. For example, if you look up "human" in a dictionary, it doesn't actually tell you what a human is, or what a human looks like, or how a human behaves. It just says a human is a person, and then when you look up "person" it refers you back to human!

Encyclopedias are great because they can describe the thing that you're trying to understand. But I haven't been able to find any good books that briefly describe many mathematical concepts in an organised way that can be quickly looked up by letter/name.

Thanks in advance.
 
Do you know that the brightest living or dead mathematician know less than 1% of all math?
You want an encyclopedia that describes everything in math. This is not going to happen.
Do you know that there is more mathematical research being done now than ever. before This means more mathematics each and every day.
 
Try googling keywords crc concise encyclopedia of mathematics, and you ought to see links to previews. If you add PDF to the search string, you may find links to downloadable versions.

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mmm4444bot said:
Try googling keywords crc concise encyclopedia of mathematics, and you ought to see links to previews. If you add PDF to the search string, you may find links to downloadable versions.

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[imath]\;[/imath]
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Thanks! I managed to find 1st edition on the archive site. If anyone is able to find 3rd edition or newer, please let me know :)

I should mention, a book that explains things in layman plain English would be preferable.

I just found another book, which is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than the CRC concise book. It's called Encyclopedia of Mathematics by James S. Tanton, and can also be found as a pdf. Not only does it have less pages (the CRC is over-kill at 1200 to 2000 pages), but also, it explains in more detail the important topics, and is in SIMPLE PLAIN ENGLISH! :D

For example, the definition of "Absolute Value"
CRC Version: https://i.ibb.co/Z6RHJzn/Absolute.png
Tanton Version: https://i.ibb.co/pjPCdkW/Absolute-Value-2.png
 
Subhotosh Khan said:
Be careful about simple plain english. I refer you back to your question about "multiplication".
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Yes I know, but in the earliest stages of learning, it really isn't possible to learn math without English. It would be like trying to learn Chinese by reading Chinese. It has to start with simple English. Once math is better understood, then sure, you could learn math using math, although, I doubt it would give you any analogous intuition.
 
Apple30 said:
Yes I know, but in the earliest stages of learning, it really isn't possible to learn math without English. It would be like trying to learn Chinese by reading Chinese. It has to start with simple English. Once math is better understood, then sure, you could learn math using math, although, I doubt it would give you any analogous intuition.
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Intuition relies on experience. Once you get some experience with Math you learn to think in terms of Math, not English. Like any other field of study it's a language all it's own.

-Dan
 
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