From his unusual beginning in "Defining a vector" to his final comments on "What then is a vector?" author Banesh Hoffmann has written a bookthat is provocative and unconventional. In hisemphasis onthe unresolved issue of defining a vector, Hoffmann mixes pure and applied mathematics without using calculus. The result is a treatmentthat can serve asa supplement and corrective to textbooks, as well ascollateral reading in all courses that deal with vectors. Major topics include vectors andthe parallelogram law; algebraic notation and basic ideas;vector algebra;scalars and scalar products; vector products and quotients of vectors; andtensors. The author writes with a fresh, challenging style, making all complex concepts readily understandable. Nearly 400 exercises appear throughout the text. Professor of Mathematics at Queens College at the City University of New York, Banesh Hoffmann is also the author of "The Strange Story of the Quantum" and other important books. This volume provides much that is new for both students and their instructors, and it will certainly generate debate and discussion in the classroom.
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