Humble Pi

2021-01-19 Mathematics

Author : Matt Parker
Release : 2021-01-19
Genre : Mathematics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 691/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Humble Pi by : Matt Parker

Download or read book Humble Pi written by Matt Parker. This book was released on 2021-01-19. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AN ADAM SAVAGE BOOK CLUB PICK The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” “Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations—that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes.” —Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn’t. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences. Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

How Not to Be Wrong

2015-05-26 Mathematics

Author : Jordan Ellenberg
Release : 2015-05-26
Genre : Mathematics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 535/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis How Not to Be Wrong by : Jordan Ellenberg

Download or read book How Not to Be Wrong written by Jordan Ellenberg. This book was released on 2015-05-26. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read . . ." —Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer? How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God. Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

2014-12-02 Games & Activities

Author : Matt Parker
Release : 2014-12-02
Genre : Games & Activities
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 376/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension by : Matt Parker

Download or read book Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension written by Matt Parker. This book was released on 2014-12-02. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book from the stand-up mathematician that makes math fun again! Math is boring, says the mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. Part of the problem may be the way the subject is taught, but it's also true that we all, to a greater or lesser extent, find math difficult and counterintuitive. This counterintuitiveness is actually part of the point, argues Parker: the extraordinary thing about math is that it allows us to access logic and ideas beyond what our brains can instinctively do—through its logical tools we are able to reach beyond our innate abilities and grasp more and more abstract concepts. In the absorbing and exhilarating Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Parker sets out to convince his readers to revisit the very math that put them off the subject as fourteen-year-olds. Starting with the foundations of math familiar from school (numbers, geometry, and algebra), he reveals how it is possible to climb all the way up to the topology and to four-dimensional shapes, and from there to infinity—and slightly beyond. Both playful and sophisticated, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension is filled with captivating games and puzzles, a buffet of optional hands-on activities that entices us to take pleasure in math that is normally only available to those studying at a university level. Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension invites us to re-learn much of what we missed in school and, this time, to be utterly enthralled by it.

Math with Bad Drawings

2018-09-18 Mathematics

Author : Ben Orlin
Release : 2018-09-18
Genre : Mathematics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 027/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Math with Bad Drawings by : Ben Orlin

Download or read book Math with Bad Drawings written by Ben Orlin. This book was released on 2018-09-18. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious reeducation in mathematics-full of joy, jokes, and stick figures-that sheds light on the countless practical and wonderful ways that math structures and shapes our world. In Math With Bad Drawings, Ben Orlin reveals to us what math actually is; its myriad uses, its strange symbols, and the wild leaps of logic and faith that define the usually impenetrable work of the mathematician. Truth and knowledge come in multiple forms: colorful drawings, encouraging jokes, and the stories and insights of an empathetic teacher who believes that math should belong to everyone. Orlin shows us how to think like a mathematician by teaching us a brand-new game of tic-tac-toe, how to understand an economic crises by rolling a pair of dice, and the mathematical headache that ensues when attempting to build a spherical Death Star. Every discussion in the book is illustrated with Orlin's trademark "bad drawings," which convey his message and insights with perfect pitch and clarity. With 24 chapters covering topics from the electoral college to human genetics to the reasons not to trust statistics, Math with Bad Drawings is a life-changing book for the math-estranged and math-enamored alike.

It’s a Numberful World

2019-09-03 Mathematics

Author : Eddie Woo
Release : 2019-09-03
Genre : Mathematics
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 129/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis It’s a Numberful World by : Eddie Woo

Download or read book It’s a Numberful World written by Eddie Woo. This book was released on 2019-09-03. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2021 Mathical Honor Book Why aren’t left-handers extinct? What makes a rainbow round? How is a pancreas . . . like a pendulum? Publisher's note: It's a Numberful World was published in Australia under the title Woo's Wonderful World of Maths. These may not look like math questions, but they are—because they all have to do with patterns. And mathematics, at heart, is the study of patterns. That realization changed Eddie Woo’s life—by turning the “dry” subject he dreaded in high school into a boundless quest for discovery. Now an award-winning math teacher, Woo sees patterns everywhere: in the “branches” of blood vessels and lightning, in the growth of a savings account and a sunflower, even in his morning cup of tea! Here are twenty-six bite-size chapters on the hidden mathematical marvels that encrypt our email, enchant our senses, and even keep us alive—from the sine waves we hear as “music” to the mysterious golden ratio. This book will change your mind about what math can be. We are all born mathematicians—and It’s a Numberful World.

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