Experimental mathematics with MAPLE (Q2710215)

This book covers a one-semester course in experimental mathematics at the first-year undergraduate level (post-calculus in the United States). The pedagogical ideology behind it is that students will best be equipped to take serious conceptual steps after having seen evidence of mathematical phenomena. There are many such books, and the mix of topics in most is similar to the mix here, so I will restrict the review to four reasons why I like this book. First, this is very clearly a book about mathematics written by a mathematician interested in teaching mathematics, not a book about MAPLE written by someone interested in computer algebra packages. This means that genuine mathematical phenomena and ideas are carefully exposed, with MAPLE the servant of the exposition not the master. Second, there are some interesting and innovative topics from combinatorics, number theory and dynamical systems here. Third, the book balances the urge to get somewhere against the need to carry along novice MAPLE users particularly well. Finally, a great deal of thought and care has clearly gone into the book: there seem to be very few errors, there are many careful examples, and there is a good index. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEMy only negative reaction is aimed at the publisher not the author: is \$50 a reasonable price point for a 228 page paperback without colour illustrations? This is the (reasonable) price of the 822 page dynamical systems book of \textit{Katok} and \textit{Hasselblatt} [Cambridge University Press (1997; Zbl 0878.58019)].