Reddit mentions of Mathematics for the Nonmathematician

For the price and material, you really can't go wrong with Mathematics for the Non-mathematician

Preview here

Interviews with mathematicians from MIT (haven't read it, but it is leisurely):
http://www.amazon.com/Recountings-Conversations-Mathematicians-Joel-Segel/dp/1568817134

Some good magazines from AMS:
http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Happening-Mathematical-Sciences-Mathermatical/dp/0821849999

If you want to learn some math in a leisurely way (although it does get pretty deep at times):
http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-Modern-Mathematics-Ian-Stewart/dp/0486284247

A good book on the history of mathematics:
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Dover-explaining-science/dp/0486248232

I'll definitely check out that Poincare book, it looks good!

Try khan academy - free site with videos about basic math. This book too: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Morris-Kline/dp/0486248232

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Dover-Books/dp/0486248232

https://www.khanacademy.org/

Mathematics for the Nonmathematician, disgustingly eurocentric but still good, Concepts of Modern Mathematics gives an overview of some higher maths, and I have the set The World of Mathematics which I occasionally read a random chapter, it covers lots of ground.

that is the gambler's ruin problem

keep doubling your bet until you win

it is why casino's put a upper limit on bet size.

morris kline's Mathematics for the Nonmathematician

https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Morris-Kline/dp/0486248232

is an oldie but a goodie. he was a famous critic of how schools teach math. he thought schools focused too much on theory without connecting math to the real world.

but to answer your question, if you are studying a particular issue, wikipedia often will give you the historical context. then you can look up the problem that was originally being solved, e.g. the student-t distribution and guinness beer.

Completely backwards; I learned earlier disc math in bits and pieces from various college algebra books (e.g., this, there were others but I can't recall their titles) and the bulk of my disc math/comp sci theory/graph theory/big-O from this one which I have no reason whatsoever to believe is the best way to do it and which dramatically over-emphasizes grammars and Turing machines compared to WGU curriculum and, I think, college curricula in general. It was also kind of a heavy lift since my disc math was weak coming into it, I think I spent more time on the one-chapter 'review' of discrete math than I did on any other three chapters in the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Morris-Kline/dp/0486248232

I'm current reading this, I'm finding this interesting to understand the historical pathways.

Mathematics for the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline

I swear by this. As someone who has always been a reading person, math textbooks drive me crazy. Stupid bold text, boxed problems, and cluttered graphs distracted me from the poorly written explanatory paragraphs. If I was lucky, my math teacher would be good at explaining a concept verbally as well as visually. Many have already recommended Khan, who is much better with the visual than the verbal.

Morris Kline was a professor at NYU in the 50s, 60s and 70s, a time when textbooks were still more like books than illustrated guides. His writing is clear and concise, which is a must for math, but it is also filled with examples from the real world (including history, art, and engineering).

This book was specifically written for Liberal Arts majors at NYU, not math majors. I'm a Biology major, so somewhere in between as far as technical math goes. I bought this before taking Pre-Calculus in the summer from 8am to 11am. I had never been great at math, just as good as the time I put in doing problems (which was not much). After reading through it, I was excited about trigonometric functions, imaginary numbers, exponentials, and the like. He puts things into a conceptual framework that is very attractive to a "big picture" person like myself.

Buy this book. Buy it now. 28 reviews on amazon and 4.5 stars. 10 bucks. Do it.

This book is decent: https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Dover-Books/dp/0486248232

Awesome stuff! Let me volunteer my time; if you ever want to ask a question of someone (who you will soon outstrip in mathematical ability if not interest), PM me.

One thing that might help you is to go through a history of math. This way you're learning math the way the world has been learning math. It may give you a better understanding of why things are done the way they are. Mathematics for the Non-mathematician is something I'd like to work my way through (anyone interested in doing an online reading group this summer?) that may help you. Johnson/Mowry: Mathematics: A Practical Odyssey is a text I worked through that discussed some of the history and went in something resembling historical order (I had the third edition). As far as getting texts for self study goes, keep an eye out for older editions; you'll save a lot on a subject that doesn't change over time.

Good luck! I'm rooting for you!

The short path is through Kline's Mathematics for NonMathematicians. I think calling it a book for non-mathematically inclined readers is a stretch (even the inclined are going to have 600+ pages to wade through) but it's definitely a solid redux of history. Just detail-lite.

I only skimmed your post but I'd advise against beginning at arithmetics. It'll be boring as fuck, you'll mostly find material intended for children and you're probably gonna lose interest. Also there really isn't much to it.

One book that paints a bigger picture is this:

https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Morris-Kline/dp/0486248232/

Though old, it's a pretty interesting and well written book and it covers the basics of many topics. It has countless real applications of mathematics and even a lot of history. You can find it on Library Genesis but the physical copy is 8 bones right now so I'd just go for that tbh.

From there you might want to dive deeper into whatever topic interested you most, if that's Calculus you might want to get some kind of precalculus book and then "Calculus - A physical approach" which was written by Morris Kline as well. I personally really enjoy this guy's style, can recommend his stuff, but there are a lot of other good textbooks out there. Spivak and Rudin might be suitable alternatives.

Read "Mathematics for the non-mathematician", despite the name, it is rigorous and tells the story of math, introducing each math subject as it was discovered in history - teaching from Babylon/Egyptian need to measure fields, up through the need to calculate cannonball distances, and on into the space-age and statistics: http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Dover-Books/dp/0486248232

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Nonmathematician-Dover-Books/dp/0486248232/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1419370059&sr=8-8&keywords=mathematics+for

If anyone is interested in serious math, but in a (somewhat) light fiction form, take a look at the books:

Rozsa Peter, Playing with Infinity [Amazon] [Goodreads]

Kline Morris, Mathematics for the Nonmathematician [Amazon] [Goodreads]

This isn't a website but I'm really enjoying Mathematics for the Non-Mathematician by Morris Kline at the moment. It goes into the history of math which gives you a much better understanding of why math is the way it is rather than just how to do it. The history of mathematics is surprisingly fascinating. I just want to go back in time and hug the Greeks now.