Geometry Demystified,   ISBN:9780071416504

Customer Rating: 

This book demystifies geometry simply by offering definitions of geometric terms. And it does that pretty well. It does have quizzes at the end of each chapter but not much in the text to help you calculate the answers if you do not already have a grasp of the concept. For example, chapter one contains a definition of radians and a list of the range of radians for various types of angles ("an acute angle has a measure of more than 0 rad but less than pi/2 rad"). That is it for radians. The chapter-one quiz then asks, "An angle measures 30 degrees. How many radians is this, approximately?" and offers four choices. If you turn back to the section on radians for help calculating the answer, you will be out of luck. There isn't any example of how to convert from degrees to radians. So you may struggle deciding that the straight angle is the basis, that thirty degrees is one sixth of 180, and that you need to multiply pi by one sixth to get your answer. If you knew geometry way back when and need a refresher, this book will work well for you. If you are studying geometry and need a supplemental reference, this will also work well for you. If you want to learn geometry, buy another book. This one really is not designed for that purpose. It does, though, contain many useful formulae.

Customer Rating: 

I found this book a little confusing at times, but maybe its me. I still highly recommend it, it is a fresh new angle on Geometry.

Customer Rating: 

Well, typically most geometry self-teachning books focus on the topics typically covered in a high school geometry class, which I might add are quite simplistic in nature. I skimmed through this book at my local bookstore out of curiousity (I've had good luck with the demystified series, especially physics, by the same author), and what really caught my attention was the coverage of the elementary high school topics in a lean, mean six chapters with the rest covering hyperspace, warped space, polar coordinates, and basic vector mathematics.

The quizzes are pretty good for reinforcing the concepts...they actually make you think (gee, what a concept)! It'd be nice if there were more of the problems, however (but not as many as Glencoe's books do). The tests really give one a sense of being in a classroom, especially since there's a final exam as well.

This book is a gem, and for $13, you can't really go wrong.

Customer Rating: 

I took geometry when I was in high school, and my son will be taking it next year so I was looking for something with which to brush up. This book is not it.

First, it does not have any proofs. This was a huge part of geometry 20 years ago, and I can't believe that they no longer teach proofs in today's geometry.

Second, it goes way beyond high school geometry. The last few chapters cover geometry in 3 dimensions as opposed to just planar geometry, and then 4-Dimensional geometry using time as the 4th dimension, and then touch on how n-dimensional geometry would work. I found this really fascinating, and thus 3-stars, but not exactly the 'geometry demystified' for which I was looking.

Customer Rating: 

For me, I liked this book since it had tests at the end of every chapter to see where you were in that particular topic. I normally just went through each test and tested myself with the multiple choice questions, then gave my answers to a friend to mark (which was easy on their part so that was another plus, since it's simply multiple choice.) If I had less than perfect (yes, I strive to work my best!) then I go back (without looking at what the answers were to the questions I got wrong) and then checked over the chapter again until I think I knew the new answer.

Any how, I think this concept is good; and marking multiple choice questions are very simple to do as well so it doesn't take up too much time from a friend or family member.