A Quick Maths Joke and an Exceptionally Bad Pun

A mathematician is sitting on a bench outside a house. He watches three people come out of the house and two people go in. He turns to the other person on the bench and says "you know if one more person goes into that house it will be empty."

That's almost as bad as the conversation between a maths teacher and student.

Student: Do I really need to know about series.
Teacher: Only if you are series about passing.

Understanding Physics For Advanced Level by Jim Breithaupt Textbook Review

The edition that I own 

This is at present my all time favourite textbook. I know this is a maths blog but it was impossible to resist writing about such a wonderful physics book. 

The explanations in this book are incredible: it is like Walter Lewin on paper. There are also questions at the end of each chapter, explained experiments and results, additional helpful chapters on writing reports and uncertainties and even an exam at the end. 

I remember that in my class the textbook was never referred to by name but simply as "Jim". For example people would ask "Where has Jim gone?" or "is Jim going home with you tonight" or even "do you mind if I use Jim this weekend?". 

The book is ideal of A Level or for Scottish Advanced Higher physics investigations.  

Engineering Mathematics by John Bird Textbook Review

This is an extensive introduction to mathematics. The book contains a enormous amount of well worked questions with full solutions. Unlike most maths textbooks the examples are not purely mathematical - each step is clearly explained in both maths and English terms helping you to better understand the material.

The main draw back of the book is that the end of chapter questions do not have solutions which is very annoying for students. They are good questions though.

The book is worth buying simply as a reference book and a go to when you are stuck on something.

If you like this book the author (John Bird) has also published numerous other similarly extensive books including Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology which I recommend also.