Hofstadter s Law: It always takes longer than you think it will take, even if you take into account Hofstadter s Law. (Douglas R. Hofstadter) Dear Reader, why did we begin the foreword of this second volume with the same quote as the ?rst? There we wrote that it took three years of intense work just to ?ll three centimeters of your bookshelf. The completion of this volume took four years and it is about four centimeters thick. Thus we have a con?rmed invariant which governs our writing: our velocity is one centimeter per year, after all e?ects due to Hofstadter s Law have been taken into...

Hofstadter s Law: It always takes longer than you think it will take, even if you take into account Hofstadter s Law. (Douglas R. Hofstadter) Dear Reader, why did we begin the foreword of this second volume with the same quote as the ?rst? There we wrote that it took three years of intense work just to ?ll three centimeters of your bookshelf. The completion of this volume took four years and it is about four centimeters thick. Thus we have a con?rmed invariant which governs our writing: our velocity is one centimeter per year, after all e?ects due to Hofstadter s Law have been taken into...

This book provides students with the rudiments of Linear Algebra, a fundamental subject for students in all areas of science and technology. The book would also be good for statistics students studying linear algebra.

It isthe translation of a successful textbook currently being used in Italy. The author is a mathematician sensitive to the needs of a general audience.

In addition to introducing fundamental ideas in Linear Algebra through a wide variety of interesting examples, the book also discusses topics not usually covered in an elementary text (e.g. the "cost" of...