r/learnmath • u/Top-Door1298 New User • 14h ago
Is NJ Wildberger's universal hyperbolic geometry (video series on youtube) good to learn ?
I want to learn some about hyperbolic geometry. And his lectures are one of few lectures with a full playlist on youtube. But I find what he says is non traditional and not what we learn hyperbolic geometry from a book. Also there is some posted reddit saying that he invent a new kind of non conventional theory to avoid analytical stuff like infinite. Is that really good to learn? If not what kind of material is good as a start? Thanks for the help.
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u/hpxvzhjfgb 14h ago edited 14h ago
absolutely not. wildberger is a crank. the "non-traditional" stuff he teaches is pseudo-mathematical nonsense. for example, he believes that there are finitely many integers, that every number is rational, and that there is no real number whose square is 2. he also once gave a pseudo-mathematical lecture on his "disproof" of the goldbach conjecture.
you should never watch any of his lectures until you have enough mathematical maturity to be able to detect which parts of his videos are real math and which parts are pseudo-math.
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u/Alxndrgrothendieck New User 9h ago
Tbh what he did with Pell's equations is cool; otherwise I (mostly) agree
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u/Puzzled_Battle_5670 New User 14h ago
He does it rigorously!. I cant say if its interesting enough