Publisher's Synopsis
In this richly entertaining and accessible book, Alex Bellos explodesthe myth that maths is best left to the geeks. Covering subjects fromadding to algebra, from set theory to statistics, and from logarithmsto logical paradoxes, he explains how mathematical ideas underpin justabout everything in our lives.
Alex explains the surprising geometry of the 50p piece, and thestrategy of how best to gamble it in a casino. He shines a light on themathematical patterns in nature, and on the peculiar predictability ofrandom behaviour. He eats a potato crisp whose revolutionary shape wasunpalatable to the ancient Greeks, and he shows the deep connectionsbetween 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 mentalcalculators in Germany, consults a numerologist in the US desert, meetsa startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan, and seeks advice from avenerable Hindu sage in India. An unlikely but exhilarating cocktail ofhistory, reportage and mathematical proofs, Alex's dispatches from'Numberland' show the world of maths to be a much friendlier and morecolourful place than you might have imagined.
