Books on Experimental Mathematics


Bailey and Borwein have written several references works on experimental mathematics, which we feature here. As other books are published in this general area, we will feature them here also.

Other books of interest to the experimental mathematics community

Book Reviews

Here are some reviews of the above experimental math books (most recent listed first):
  1. Review of Experimental Mathematics in Action by Andrew Odlyzko in American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 118 (Dec 2011), pg. 946-947: PDF
  2. Review of Mathematics by Experiment: Plausible Reasoning in the 21st Century (second edition), in Mathematical Reviews, MR2473161, by Michael Otte: PDF
  3. Review of The Computer as Crucible in Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society, vol. 36, no. 9 (July 2009), pg. 208: PDF
  4. Review of The Computer as Crucible in Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (CHOICE), vol. 46 no 9 (May 2009): PDF
  5. Review of Experimental Mathematics in Action in Zenmtralblatt-Math 1127: PDF
    We agree with the reviewer that in some cases more historical references would have been appropriate: but the book was written as a short course and more detailed references were always available in articles cited in the book.
  6. Review of Experimental Mathematics in Action in Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society, vol. 34, no. 5 (Nov 2007), pg. 290: PDF
  7. BookNews.com review of Experimental Mathematics in Action (see pg. 16): PDF
  8. MAA Online book review of Experimenal Mathematics in Action: HTML
  9. Experimental Math in Action is included by Science News in a listing of "new and notable" science books (Aug 2007): PDF
  10. ACM Computing Reviews review of Mathematics by Experiment, Experimentation in Mathematics, and CD-ROM version (2 Mar 2007): PDF
  11. Review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics in Notes of the Canadian Mathematical Society, by Richard Crandall (vol. 38, no. 4, 2006): PDF
  12. Review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, by Jeffrey Shallit (Sep 2005 issue): PDF
  13. Review of Expermentation in Mathematics in Math Reviews, by Frits Beukers (May 2005): PDF
  14. Article in Pour La Science (French), by Jean-Paul Delahaye (Apr 2005): PDF
  15. Review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics in Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society, vol. 32, no. 3, pg. 199 (2005), by Andrew Rechnitzer: PDF
  16. Review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics in SIAM Review, by Reuben Hersh and Robin Frye (vol. 47 no. 4, 2005): PDF
  17. MAA online book review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics, by David P. Roberts (2005): HTML
  18. Review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics in American Scientist, by Doron Zeilberger (Mar-Apr 2005 issue): HTML
  19. Review of Mathematics by Experiment in Mathematics Magazine, by Paul J. Campbell (2005): HTML
  20. Zentralblatt review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics, by Gunter M. Ziegler (2004): PDF
  21. Review of Mathematics by Experiment in Math Reviews, by John H. Mason (Nov 2004): PDF
  22. Review of Mathematics by Experiment and Experimentation in Mathematics in European Mathematical Society Review, by Ivan Netuka and Vladimir Soucek (Sept 2004): PDF
  23. Citation in the National Academy of Science report "Getting Up to Speed: The Future of Supercomputing" (June 2004): PDF
  24. Berkeley Science Review article, by Padraig Murphy (June 2004): PDF

Supplementary Information for the Books

  1. A "Reader's Digest" version of "Mathematics by Experiment" and "Experimentation in Mathematics" is freely available here: PDF
  2. Citation errors in Mathematics by Experiment
  3. Ten Sample Problems of Experimental Math
  4. Errata in Mathematics by Experiment, first edition
  5. Errata in Mathematics by Experiment, second edition.
  6. Errata in Experimentation in Mathematics
  7. Errata in Mathematics by Experiment and Experiments in Mathematics (CD-ROM edition)
  8. Errata in Experimental Mathematics in Action

Author Websites

  1. Borwein's website: http://www.carma.newcastle.edu.au/~jb616/
  2. Bailey's website: http://crd.lbl.gov/~dhbailey
  3. Girgensohn's email: zzzzzz@mytum.de. To obtain the real address, replace "zzzzzz" by "girgen".