# Mathematicians, recommend me a book on geometry. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 29, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793 "2005-03-29T17:37:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/1 "2005-03-29T17:37:37Z")
I don’t think this falls under the remit of Cafe Society, but I may be mistaken. I’m a second year Computer Science student, and I need to get a decent book on geometry. I have asked my lecturer for a recommendation, but he recommended the notes (which are terse and incomplete, half the work we have done isn’t covered by them, and half the notes we haven’t covered). We’ve covered surfaces (planes, half planes, two and one sheeted hyperboloids etc.), SO3® matrices (IIRC), intersections, projections, projective space and homogeneous co-ordinates and surfaces in it, transformation matrices etc. Is there a book out there that would suit my needs? I already have “Applied Geometry for Computer Graphics and CAD” which covers some but not all of my course, and leaves a lot to be desired when it explains things (it doesn’t prove anything, just provides equations and matrices). Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/2 "2005-03-29T19:14:33Z")
Dover Publications has a lot of cheap math books that are worth looking into. In particular, you might consider [this one](http://store.yahoo.com/doverpublications/0486658120.html). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/3 "2005-03-29T19:16:54Z")
Dover also has wonderful editions of Euclid and Archimedes. ---
**Author:** ![pmwgreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pmwgreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmwgreen)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/4 "2005-03-29T19:52:30Z")
Geometry for Enjoyment & Challenge by Richard Rhoad, George Milauskas, Robert Whipple I have never seen the book, except in a very early edition, but I was taught Math by these three guys and I can’t recommend them highly enough! ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/5 "2005-03-30T03:44:33Z")
[Introduction to Geometry](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471504580/qid=1112155337/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-6002992-3116725?v=glance&s=books) by HMS Coxeter is a classic, as is its ‘sequel’ [Geometry Revisited](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0883856190/qid=1112155337/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-6002992-3116725?v=glance&s=books). ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/6 "2005-03-30T04:48:02Z")
> [@+MDI](#): > > I don’t think this falls under the remit of Cafe Society, but I may be mistaken. > > I’m a second year Computer Science student, and I need to get a decent book on geometry. I have asked my lecturer for a recommendation, but he recommended the notes (which are terse and incomplete, half the work we have done isn’t covered by them, and half the notes we haven’t covered). > > We’ve covered surfaces (planes, half planes, two and one sheeted hyperboloids etc.), SO3® matrices (IIRC), intersections, projections, projective space and homogeneous co-ordinates and surfaces in it, transformation matrices etc. > > Is there a book out there that would suit my needs? I already have “Applied Geometry for Computer Graphics and CAD” which covers some but not all of my course, and leaves a lot to be desired when it explains things (it doesn’t prove anything, just provides equations and matrices). > > Thanks. What are your applications? There’s Euclidean, Non-Euclidean, Formal, Algebraic, Analytic, Differential, Conformal (little to no relation to Formal), … Geometries. I can hardly recommend a book if you don’t tell me what you want to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/7 "2005-03-30T17:47:21Z")
Err, I think it’s Euclidean (we’re getting taught it to prepare us for computer graphics courses next year, if that helps). Still, I’m not entirely sure. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mathematicians-recommend-me-a-book-on-geometry/296793/8 "2005-03-30T23:20:35Z")
Definitely do **not** get _Painless Geometry_, by Lynette Long. I’ve never seen a book so loaded with errors. It’s really, really bad.