Some mathematicians from the former USSR, who are now at American
Universities, are publishing some of the textbooks that were used in
former days. We have had swome awesome post docs who used such texts for
their early education. I invite you all to take a look at some of these
texts. One, that I have in front of me right now, is Gelfand and Shen, "
"Algebra" (Birhauser 1993). It has a mass of 300 g, and a cost
proportional to its mass. There are just a few problems per topic.
To give you the flavor of the book, it starts with a discussion of why
does multiplication of 5 by 3 give the same result as multiplication of 3
by 5.
The exercises are thinkpieces.
I invite list members to sample some of these texts and consider
advocating their use in this country.
Regards,
Jack
--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley