Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors - Couverture souple

Parker, Matt

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0141989149 ISBN 13 : 9780141989143

Editeur : Penguin, 2020

Synopsis

**The First Ever Maths Book to be a No.1 Bestseller**
'Wonderful ... superb' Daily Mail

What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world.

As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world.

Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills', but we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical ally. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks, jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Originally a maths teacher from Australia, Matt Parker now lives in the overly quaint British town of Godalming. As well as talking about maths on TV and radio, Matt also performs sold-out live comedy shows and makes YouTube videos that have received tens of millions of views. The Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, Matt has a square named after him but he doesn't want to talk about it.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world. As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Explorin

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Penguin
• Date d'édition: 2020
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0141989149
• ISBN 13: 9780141989143
• Reliure: Broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 336
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Penguin Books Limited; productsafety@penguin.co.uk; ; One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens; London; SW11 7BW; Royaume-Uni
• Personne responsable: Penguin Books Limited; productsafety@penguin.co.uk; ; One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens; London; SW11 7BW; Royaume-Uni