Overview
Like it or not, our lives are dominated by mathematics. Our daily diet of news regales us with statistical forecasts, opinion polls, risk assessments, inflation figures, weather and climate predictions and all sorts of political decisions and advice backed up by supposedly accurate numbers. Most of us do not even pause and question such figures even to ask what they really mean and whether they raise more questions than they answer. We let the figures wash over us with no more than a glance. In this simple guide for anyone numbed by numbers, William Hartston explains with clarity and humour how to steer a safe path through the minefield of mathematics that surrounds us.
Full Product Details
Author: William Hartston
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Imprint: Atlantic Books
Edition: Main
Dimensions:
Width: 13.50cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 21.60cm
Weight: 0.461kg
ISBN: 9781838950842
ISBN 10: 1838950842
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 05 November 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
Professional and scholarly
,
General
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
Discovering the many undiscovered things that one thought had been discovered already is one of the joys of this book... You might have thought that wallowing in ignorance is a tedious and fruitless occupation. As Hartston proves entertainingly, how wrong you would be. * Daily Express on The Things That Nobody Knows * Properly researched, and the elegance of its pop-cosmology or pop-biology mini-narratives rivals that of many specialists. It is slyly witty, and pleasingly optimistic. * Steven Poole, Guardian on The Things That Nobody Knows * Each mystery is delightfully penned in bite-sized chunks that often includes humorous repertoire... highly enjoyable... Captivating and inspiring. * New Scientist on The Things That Nobody Knows *
If you're not one of the lucky few who can say, ""Oh, mathematics was my best subject at school,"" then you might find yourself stumped by the news, or personal finance, or chaos and catastrophe (yes, William Hartston shows us there's maths involved there, too). Luckily, Numb and Number is able to explain these things and more, in a way that's easy to understand and even enjoyable to read. * BBC Science Focus * A wise, witty, and insightful guide to clear thinking amid a deluge of percentages and probabilities. Learn to spot the fake formulas and the spurious statistics. Up to 100% of readers will find this book utterly fascinating. Recommended by 92.53% of mathematicians. -- Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God?
Author Information
William Hartston is a Cambridge-educated mathematician and industrial psychologist. Between 1962 and 1987 he played chess competitively, becoming an international master and winning the British chess championship in 1973 and 1975. He runs competitions in creative thinking at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad, writes the off-beat Beachcomber column for the Daily Express, where he is also the opera critic, and is the author of several books on chess, numbers, humour and trivia, including The Things That Nobody Knows and Even More Things That Nobody Knows.
