Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2009 March 2

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March 2

A good book in Tensor Calculus?

What do you recommend as a reader-friendly "Tensor Calculus" Book? I've read some pages of this [1] book. What do you think about it? Re444 (talk) 11:05, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

"Tensor Analysis on Manifolds" by Bishop and Goldberg; it's friendly, inexpensive, light on prereqs, rigorus, and covers a decent ammount of topics for an introduction(in my opinion). If you look it up on Amazon the reviews can tell you more. I've also had people tell me that Spivaks Calculus on manifolds is good, I have a copy but didn't much like it myself(though you might :) Phoenix1177 (talk) 11:28, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

How about googling "Wikibook Tensor Calculus". This will give you a book on tensor calculus, made by the people here. :) --PST 13:41, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, Wikipedia is a great and wide source of quick maths references, and is maybe the future; still I would prefer a real book by real authors. Moreover, as you know wery well, nothing is comparable to sniffing the glue of a maths book. --pma (talk) 22:37, 2 March 2009 (UTC) ;)

Spivak's Calculus on Manifolds is rather terse. Vol. 1 of his "Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry" may be easier to deal with. It covers more subjects, but is more conversational. 76.195.10.34 (talk) 06:17, 3 March 2009 (UTC)