A mathematics book which can be read like a story ?

Sounds impossible ? Not at all !. There is a book by the name "A Mathematical Bridge " which is till date the best exposition of mathematics ( without sacrificing rigour ) i have come across. It covers most of the topics one is supposed to encounter as a programmer. I have spent number of
years working with CAD/CAM software development. I have not seen more mathematics than which is covered in that book. The only sad part is the book does not have an indian editon and it costs $52 ( Rs. 2500 )
Read a review of the book @ mathematical association of america web site
http://www.maa.org/reviews/mathematicalbridge.html

Principles of Mathematics

Bertrand Russel was a realy polymath to the extent possible by a human. The Wiki Page of Bertrand Russel can be retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell .
Even though he has won nobel prize for Literature , he is one of the foremost mathematician
(mathematical logic ) of the 20th century. Bertrand Russel and David Hilbert embarked on
a program to reduce entire mathemtics to few basic logical premises. This is also known
as axiomatization of mathematics. Even though , both failed in their endeavour, the collateral
benifits were renewed rigour for mathematics , invention of formalisms like "Turing machine,
Lambda Calculus " etc to name a few. Their effort made Predicate calculus a genuine field of enquiry. In 1903, Russel published "Principles of mathematics". I happen to see a online edition of this land mark book @ http://fair-use.org/bertrand-russell/the-principles-of-mathematics/ . I am having a printed copy of the book. Incidently , i came across this book when i was barely 18 !. i tried to understand the contents and failed miserably. Later , i read his Introduction to mathematical philosophy as an aid to navigate principles book . This book helped me to understand the wider issues which was bothering mathematicians in those times. The celebrated Russel's Paradox originated while Russel was researching for the book..

A scary book indeed...!

The book , 'Rogue Economics' is an interesting book which looks at the battle between Politics and Economics. Now with the advent of Globalization , Economics is triumphing over Political control. The side effect of this manifests in the lack of control over unscruplous enterprises which hijack the global economy. Due to the concentration of wealth to a select few , it is creating imbalances of frightening propotions.

It deals with Global Flesh trade , Shifting of money laundering to europe post 9/11 , "Italian , Bulgarian and Russian" mafia connection in the first three chapters.

The core message is that rampant consumerism is the byproduct of social engineering than natural evolution. Next time , before u go for leveraged finance , think twice.

The pleasant thing about the book is that it is descriptive in nature. It does not prescribe a remedy. A good piece of investigative journalism indeed..!

Rogue Economics

I Purchased a book by the title Rogue Economics Today. It is about how unscruplous traders
trade without Intervention. I just read the preface and skimmed through it. The theme of the
book reminded me of another book which i read some time back by the Title ILLicit by Moises Naim. The Amazon Url of the book ILLicit can be retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Illicit-Smugglers-Traffickers-Copycats-Hijacking/dp/0385513925
Reading these types of books are scarry. But, they talk about real stuff which can haunt u anytime in the near feature. These book will take u from 'blissful ignorance' to the pain of knowing. Anyway , i feel pain (of knowing reality ) is worth suffering.

The Amazon Url of Rogue Economics can be retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-Economics-Capitalisms-New-Reality/dp/1583228241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235410839&sr=1-1

Two good books on Probability Theory

Now a days i am trying to master Quantitative Finance by porting to C# , some programs
from Financial Numerical Recipes in C/C++. While going through the programs , i thought of understanding the derivation of some of the equations referred in the online book.

Some of the stuff require Stochastic Calculus. To better my understanding ,
i took two books on Probability theory which i purchased some time back. One of them
has got two chapters on Financial Engineering.


Elementary Probability Theory
by Kai Lai Chung and Farid Aitsahlia

http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Probability-Theory-Kai-Chung/dp/038795578X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235391640&sr=1-1

An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Vol. 1
by William Feller

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Probability-Theory-Applications-Vol/dp/0471257087/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235391726&sr=1-2


The book by Feller is a classic and should be in the shelf of anyone who likes mathematics.

A blunder by UK govt.

UK govt. is going to air a video targetting the pakistanis in the age group of 15-25.
Rather than me explaining the nuances , go through the news link and evaluate for
urself what i might have in my mind.

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Dont-attack-us-please-UK-ads-to-say-on-Pak-TV/421654/

a program to print EMI Schedule

I was going through a book by the title "Numbers Guide" . The Amazon Url for the book can be retrieved from
http://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Guide-Essentials-Business-Economist/dp/1576601447 .
While i was skimming through the topics , i skimmed through usual financial artihematic stuff like Time value of money , Present Value , Future Value , IRR etc. One heading caught my attention particularly was Regular Payments 1: repayment of Loans. I found a nifty formula for calculating EMI . Even though i knew how to calculate diminishing interest , for the first time i got a formula for EMI.
I fired up my machine and wrote a C/C++ Program to print EMI Schedule

//////////////////////
// EMISched.cpp
// a C/C++ Program to print the EMI Schedule...
// 
// 
// gcc -o EMISched.exe EMISched.cpp 
// cl EMISched.cpp 
//

#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;


double Get_emi( double principal , double rate , int number_of_year )
{

    double percent_rate = rate/(12*100);

    return principal/(( 1 - pow(1+percent_rate,-number_of_year*12))/percent_rate);

}




void main(int argc , char **argv)
{


    if ( argc != 4 ) {

        fprintf(stdout,"Usage: EmiSched <principal> <rate> <period>\n");
        return;

    }

    double principal = atof(argv[1]);
    double rate = atof(argv[2]);
    long period = atol(argv[3]);

    double emi = Get_emi(principal,rate,period);

    double temp_principal = principal;


    long months = period*12;

    long curr_month = 0;


    double curpri = principal;
    while ( curr_month < months )
    {

        double interest = curpri*(rate/(12*100));
        fprintf(stdout,"%f\t%f\t%f\t%f\n",curpri,emi,emi-interest,interest);
        curpri -= (emi-interest);
        curr_month++;
    }


    return;



}

200th Birth Day of a Great Naturalist.

Today (12th February ,2009) is the 200th Birth Day of Charles Darwin , the great English Naturalist. His book "The Origin of Species and the Descent of Man" is a watershed event in the history of our world. When his book was published , religious orthodoxy was up in arms against his findings. Slowly , but surely The Theory of Evolution is a reality to even the die hard opponents of the theory.

Now Evolution is considered as an Algorithm. An Algorithm which determines Optimal Stuff based on Trial and Error. Later , Richard Dawkins came up with a book by the Title "Selfish Gene" which is in line with Darwin's idea. As Per Dawkins ( and scientific Establishment ) , The Gene is the unit of Evolution. Dawkins also popularized a concept called Meme. Meme is an unit
of information. Like Gene , it has to survive through carriers .

The book written by Charles Darwin is available as paper back edition in all the book stalls. My copy , i purchased for Rs. 100. Selfish Gene is also available as a paper back edition. Read it and
Enlighten Yourself.

UnCyclopedia

From a friend of mine , i got a link to a site which is a pardoy of Wikipedia. IT is funny , sarcastic
and can be considered offensive by some people. But, What others percieve about us can be gleaned by reading the satirical remarks on people , events , religions , political movements etc.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

An excursion into Mathematical Finance

Hi ,
i have finished reading the book ,"GENIUS - The rise and the fall of Long Term Capital Management" and this re-kindled my interest in Quantiative Finance.

One of the best resources available on the Net is Financial Numerical Recipes in C++ @
http://finance.bi.no/~bernt/gcc_prog/index.html . I went through couple of chapters and keyed in some programs and cooked up some data to test the code. The type of things explored include
Present Value Analysis , Risk , Returns , Modern Portfolio theory. To get a deeper insight into
the subject , i used
a) Options,Futures and Other Dervatives - John Hull
http://www.amazon.com/Options-Futures-Other-Derivatives-5th/dp/0130090565

b) An Elementary Introduction to Mathematical Finance - Sheldon Ross
http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Introduction-Mathematical-Finance-Options/dp/0521814294/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234186551&sr=1-7

c) Principles of Financial Engineering - Salih Neftci.
http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Financial-Engineering-Academic-Advanced/dp/0123735742/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234186598&sr=1-2