ISBN0716743612

I loved this book. Yes, it is true that the non-Euclidean geometries are somewhat excessive and most classes do not have time to study them, however, we must put it into perspective. I have just received a copy of Geometry from the Holt publishing company from my local high school and there is far more material in it than in Jacobs' book on Spherical and Hyperbolic geometries. This was college material for me.
I found Jacobs' book to be clear, concise, and more mature of a text than others I have had experience with. W.H. Freeman was very helpful in redirecting my questions to the proper authorities when asked where to find their teacher's guide, etc.
I have had an all-around positive experience with this book.

I am a retired chemist who teaches math to homeschooled students. Early in my career I was also a math teacher so I'm fortunate to be able to see how the approach to math has changed over the years. Jacob's book is clear and concise with an enormous number of problems after each lesson. I personally believe math is learned by doing problems. It is the constant application of concepts in solving problems that enables understanding to take place; the problems in Jacob's book reinforce the postulates and theorems by applying them in different situations. The problems are also practical, amusing and interesting which certainly helps to engage students.

The layout of the book is very consistent and well organized developing a pattern which makes it easy to thumb backwards to find previous information. Consistency is important in the learning process.

I think many textbooks today make the mistake of trying to sell the subject to the student with glitz and graphics. I believe this makes those books distracting and confusing. Jacob's approach is to state a few postulates or theorems clearly with a few examples. The problem sets demonstrate their use exhaustively.

I typically assign 150 problems to my students a week. This takes about 45-60 minutes a day. We typically go over the answers and discuss the next topic very briefly. Even if the number of assigned problems is cut in half, the arrangement of the problem sets enables competency to be attained. Of course in the world of today where homework is a thing of the past, many educators believe students need to be seduced with fluff but fluff doesn't drive concepts home. Practice makes perfect still works for me. It is sad to see how other countries have surpassed us by adhering to principals of hard work as hard work will almost always guarantee success.

My only complaint about the book is the slight inconsistency in stating definitions, postulates and theorems. When virtually every geometry text including Jacob's belabors conditional statements, I believe every theorem, etc. should be stated explicitly as a conditional statement. I restate them when they stray and have students consider the converse. I find students naturally restate the theorems more casually anyway.

My son is the creative type and hated his Algebra class. Geometry, however, fascinates him, due to a large degree, I believe, on the creative presentation of this book.

This is a good geometry book, but not as wonderful as the first edition.
Visually it is more colorful, but intellectually it is less appealing.

I had liked the cartoons, the geometry topics I did not learn in high school, and the entertaining and useful introduction to logic chapter 1. My 8 year old son also found it fun and accessible. The cartoons do not seem as witty in their new placement, the interesting Heron's theorem is banished to the exercises, Pythagoras for different shapes has also been augmented with hints for the dull reader, p.419, and and the wonderful logic lesson in chapter 2 is almost entirely gone.

The ilustrations, cartoons, and discussions, no longer seem designed to make one think. This de - emphasis on thinking, and increased stress on color pictures, make this edition resemble the "highlights for children" magazines my mother loved for our kindergarten class. If your goal is to teach geometry to say a third grade class (and I would applaud that), then maybe this is a good choice, but for high schoolers, I recommend you try to find the earlier editions.

Compare the proof of SSS, in Jacobs 3rd edition, page 164, to that of Euclid, prop. 4 book one, to see the cost of omitting rigid motions.

I am being critical here of a well written work, but I am not so much comparing Jacobs to other competing books, where it stands very high, but to its own previous versions, which were decidedly superior in intellectual quality for an intelligent high school student. Having known and loved the older version, this one is a disappointment, the moreso since something rare and wonderful has been lost.

I am a high school math teacher, and I loved this book! I taught it to home school classes, and highly recommend it.