No label defined (Q4237306)

This is an attractive book which starts from the axioms of set theory and builds the number systems up to and including the complex numbers. The account is detailed and leisurely. The basic topology of \(\mathbb{R}\) (compactness and connectedness of intervals, etc.) is covered and the fundamental theorem of algebra is proved. The latter is done quite elegantly, without appealing to the complex exponential function, following \textit{Th. Estermann} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 21, 238-240 (1956; Zbl 0071.24901)]. Although the exponential function is not developed, the polar representation of complex numbers is discussed and \(\pi\) is defined geometrically. The number \(e\) is defined by the series \(\sum 1/n!\) and its equality to \(\lim (1+1/n)^n\) is a generously-hinted exercise. Formal developments are interspersed with motivational material, examples, exercises, and historical and biographical sketches. These biographies happily include two neglected Indian mathematicians from the first millenium A.D. Chapters close with a section called ``abstractions'' in which groups, rings, integral domains and other structures, of which the number systems are concrete examples, are discussed. Both the Dedekind cut method and the Cauchy sequence method of Cantor and Méray are developed and these are shown to be isomorphic structures. After appropriate general definitions, the more abstract theorem is proved: \(\mathbb{R}\) is the unique order-complete ordered field. The layout and typography are very user-friendly. The reviewer read only a few sections in detail and found the error-density about average (although misspellings and inconsequently grammatical slips are rather frequent). There is, however, some confusion in Chapter 1 between the concepts ``provable in a formal system'' and ``true in every interpretation of the system''. This is the most abstract part of the book and, as the author points out, could be skipped by less mature readers without jeopardizing the project. The book is conceived as a one-semester text for students who have studied calculus, know a little (naive) set theory, and have had some experience with proof \textit{ex hypothese}. It is perhaps gentler than many of its well-established competitors.