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CHOICE Review

A good book for the college library, for it could interest an undergraduate in Fourier analysis via its many uses in the scientific world and it could open the eyes of a mathematics student or faculty member to the wide applicability of a special field in a subject. It is also versatile, for though he omits many justifications for mathematical moves made, Cartwright provides clear asides to every reader that an omission is present. There are some leaps made without comment, such as the differential equation for the pendulum. In the first part Cartwright gathers together the mathematical machinery and general interpretation; in the second (much smaller) section he provides sample uses in physics, chemistry, and biology to a much lesser extent, and in mathematics itself. Typographical errors are unnecessarily frequent. The bibliography is very general, consisting mostly of whole monographs in other fields, i.e., books only slightly related to Fourier methods. The closest relative to this book is H.J. Weaver's Applications of Discrete and Continuous Fourier Analysis (CH, Apr'84), in which the applications are wholly physical; Cartwright casts a wider net. S. Puckette University of the South