Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches From The Wonderful World of Mathematics
by
Alex Bellos
published by
Bloomsbury
(2010)
Intrigued by integers?
Curious about quadratics?
Puzzled by probability?
Spooked by spirals?
Discover the wonderful world of maths without feeling out of your depth?
In this richly entertaining and accessible book, Alex Bellos explodes the myth that maths is best left to the geeks. Covering subjects from adding to algebra, from set theory to statistics, and from logarithms to logical paradoxes, he explains how mathematical ideas underpin just about everything in our lives. Alex explains the surprising geometry of the 50p piece, and the strategy of how best to gamble it in a casino. He shines a light on the mathematical patterns in nature, and on the peculiar predictability of random behaviour. He eats a potato crisp whose revolutionary shape was unpalatable to the ancient Greeks, and he shows the deep connections between maths, religion and philosophy. Alex weaves a journey from primary school to university level maths, from ancient history to the computing frontline, and from St Louis, Missouri, to Braintree, Essex. He meets the world's fastest mental calculators in Germany, consults a numerologist in the US desert, meets a startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan, and seeks advice from a venerable Hindu sage in India. An unlikely but exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs, Alex's dispatches from 'Numberland' show the world of maths to be a much friendlier and more colourful place than you might have imagined.
Curious about quadratics?
Puzzled by probability?
Spooked by spirals?
Discover the wonderful world of maths without feeling out of your depth?
In this richly entertaining and accessible book, Alex Bellos explodes the myth that maths is best left to the geeks. Covering subjects from adding to algebra, from set theory to statistics, and from logarithms to logical paradoxes, he explains how mathematical ideas underpin just about everything in our lives. Alex explains the surprising geometry of the 50p piece, and the strategy of how best to gamble it in a casino. He shines a light on the mathematical patterns in nature, and on the peculiar predictability of random behaviour. He eats a potato crisp whose revolutionary shape was unpalatable to the ancient Greeks, and he shows the deep connections between maths, religion and philosophy. Alex weaves a journey from primary school to university level maths, from ancient history to the computing frontline, and from St Louis, Missouri, to Braintree, Essex. He meets the world's fastest mental calculators in Germany, consults a numerologist in the US desert, meets a startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan, and seeks advice from a venerable Hindu sage in India. An unlikely but exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs, Alex's dispatches from 'Numberland' show the world of maths to be a much friendlier and more colourful place than you might have imagined.
Other books by Alex Bellos
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Alex Through the Looking Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life
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Football School: Where Football Explains the World
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Can You Solve My Problems? A Casebook of Ingenious, Perplexing and Totally Satisfying Puzzles
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Football School Season 2: Where Football Explains the World
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Football School Season 3: Where Football Explains the World
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So You Think You've Got Problems? Surprising and Rewarding Puzzles to Sharpen Your Mind
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Football School Season 4: Where Football Explains the World
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The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book: Lexical Perplexities and Cracking Conundrums From Across the Globe
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Think Twice: Solve the Simple Puzzles (Almost) Everyone Gets Wrong