"Of high merit"--"Scientific American" This stimulating approach to several branches of modern mathematics is geared to those with no background beyond elementary algebra and geometry. Its nine essays by leading mathematicians--including Oswald Veblen, Gilbert Ames Bliss, L. E. Dickson, and David Eugene Smith--cover the foundations of geometry, modern pure geometry and non-Euclidean geometry, fundamental propositions of algebra, algebraic equations, functions, fundamentals of calculus, and number theory. Each essay provides wide coverage, with proofs of important results and descriptions of leading methods. 1911 ed.