Visual Complex Analysis

Excellent

Everyone interested in mathematics and physics should take a look at this book atleast once

Very nice!!

Good

Just started reading it. Enjoying the book thoroughly.

Everyone is different. I believe that I am a visual thinker and develop understanding faster and better with a visual model or visual interpretation of the maths. This book was written with this approach in mind, so, for me, is one of the best text books on maths that i have read. Many maths text books are dense with maths, formulae, equations etc leaving the insight to the reader to develop on their own. With these other text books, I can plough my way through the maths eventually, but often i am left wondering whether i have fully understood the maths being presented and its implications. I thought this book was different. It was a thoroughly enjoyable book to read and one that i am likely to be referring to again and again.

This is not just an excellent book, this book is exceptional. I can actually name just a couple of books of the same quality. This book is in the same division as Feyman's lectures.First of all, it is a very good piece of writing. The book very easy to read (although the content is far from being easy!) and I can compare the reading of this book to reading a good classical literature. Besides that, all of the explanations in the book is very clear and visual.I knew a bit of complex analysis before, but I always felt that I miss some parts and I don't have a whole image of this field in my head. But I was quite prepared. Surprisingly, even those things which I already knew this book presented in a different way, which was very interesting.I strongly recommend this book to everyone (even to those who is confident in his knowledge of Complex Analysis!) and personally I'll follow this author and by his upcoming books.

If only this book had been available when I did my degree! I got a First, and A grades in all the papers, but two of which I had no proper understanding of: Galois Theory, and Complex Analysis. I am still searching for the book which can explain to me what made Galois set off in the direction he did. As for the latter, this work by Needham more than fulfills the comprehension I have been looking for ever since I finished my degree course, 33 years ago! Admittedly it has been a rather leisurely search. Some reviewers complain that it is not very accessible. I think it is plain right at the outset that it is not an attempt at popularising complex analysis. Nor is it intended to be a text book. The author clearly states on several occasions that sometimes he is only offering a geometric insight rather than a rigorous proof. This book is perfect in complementing a typical text on the subject, which may provide the rigour but possibly totally neglect the geometry. None of this is to suggest that the book is sloppy, or inaccurate in any way. The mathematics is not compromised at all. What was a true revelation for me was the magical world that slowly but surely unfolded with each chapter. When I did my degree, all the results of complex calculus were presented in the usual way, with rigorous proofs, which I could reproduce in exams, and knew that those results which gave complex analysis an advantage over real analysis derived from the definition of an analytic function. But I never understood why until now. People like Cauchy and Riemann clearly understood and saw in a way which is brought to life in CVA. Needham refers to Bach and Wagner in his preface. I think it is no exaggeration to say that exploring the magical world of complex analysis as presented here is just as sublime and beautiful as the music of those two giants.

Hi,In a way you only see how good this book is when you read a number of other books on this topic? This is a book that works best when other books balance these two approaches, and by doing this it lets you see the whole 'landscape' of complex analysis.If other books are rich in detailed questions, you slog along and break them down in small steps often without the `big picture' of where it fits in the wider scheme of things. With this book you see a vast sweeping panorama that allows the reader to gain insight with a geometrical approach in conceptualising areas. The book starts in elemental terms in reflections and translations and complex algebra. Also a common feature is the book has outstanding illustrations and has helpful text to explain in more depth. I found the approach helped my geometrical interpretation of the links between complex numbers projected onto 'Riemann spheres' using 'Möbius transforms' through into 'Hyperbolic geometry' and the Calculus and on further to consider the properties of 3 combinations of two curved mirrors (reflections and translations again) on a Euclidian plane. The book also carries on to cover more general-purpose 'Laurent series' and beyond and how they can be applied in Complex Analysis.* Updated 12/01/2021Reread this book cover - to - cover and it's so clear. The bit on celestial mechanics is not very good, but the rest is beautifully explained and easily comprehended. During this lockdown, I reread math books I have previously read and re-watch a movie to break the silence.Summary: I.M.H.O. It's a good buy as part of your bookshelf on this gripping topic. A Mathematics professor I knew once (who I will not name) -paraphrased-described the book to me as "the type of book you have at MSc level, without the intensive level of calculation. Its a lovely book to give you a `feel' of the topic".

Great to visualize difficult concepts, really deepens understanding.