Abstract:
Book 1 of the CRC Press Comprehensive Dictionary of Mathematics covers analysis, calculus, and
differential equations broadly, with overlap into differential geometry, algebraic geometry, topology,
and other related fields. The authorship is by 15 mathematicians, active in teaching and research,
including the editor.
Because it is a dictionary and not an encyclopedia, definitions are only occasionally accompanied
by a discussion or example. Because it is a dictionary of mathematics, the primary goal has been to
define each term rigorously. The derivation of a term is almost never attempted.
The dictionary is written to be a useful reference for a readership which includes students, scientists, and engineers with a wide range of backgrounds, as well as specialists in areas of analysis and
differential equations and mathematicians in related fields. Therefore, the definitions are intended
to be accessible, as well as rigorous. To be sure, the degree of accessibility may depend upon the
individual term, in a dictionary with terms ranging from Albanese variety to z intercept.
Occasionally a term must be omitted because it is archaic. Care was takenwhen such circumstances
arose because an archaic term may not be obsolete. An example of an archaic term deemed to be
obsolete, and hence not included, is right line. This term was used throughout a turn-of-the-century
analytic geometry textbook we needed to consult, but it was not defined there. Finally, reference to
a contemporary English language dictionary yielded straight line as a synonym for right line.
The authors are grateful to the series editor, Stanley Gibilisco, for dealing with our seemingly
endless procedural questions and to Nora Konopka, for always acting efficiently and cheerfully with
CRC Press liaison matters
