A Numerate Life

A Mathematician Explores the Vagaries of Life, His Own and Probably Yours

John Allen Paulos (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

206 Seiten

2015
Prometheus Books (Verlag)
978-1-63388-118-1 (ISBN)

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Employing intuitive ideas from mathematics, this quirky "meta-memoir" raises questions about our lives that most of us don't think to ask, but arguably should: What part of memory is reliable fact, what part creative embellishment? Which favorite presuppositions are unfounded, which statistically biased? By conjoining two opposing mindsets--the suspension of disbelief required in storytelling and the skepticism inherent in the scientific method--bestselling mathematician John Allen Paulos has created an unusual hybrid, a composite of personal memories and mathematical approaches to re-evaluating them.

Entertaining vignettes from Paulos's biography abound--ranging from a bullying math teacher and a fabulous collection of baseball cards to romantic crushes, a grandmother's petty larceny, and his quite unintended role in getting George Bush elected president in 2000. These vignettes serve as springboards to many telling perspectives: simple arithmetic puts life-long habits in a dubious new light; higher dimensional geometry helps us see that we're all rather peculiar; nonlinear dynamics explains the narcissism of small differences cascading into very different siblings; logarithms and exponentials yield insight on why we tend to become bored and jaded as we age; and there are tricks and jokes, probability and coincidences, and much more.

For fans of Paulos or newcomers to his work, this witty commentary on his life--and yours--is fascinating reading.

John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University and the author of eight previous books, including the best-selling Innumeracy and, most recently, Irreligion- A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	10.1.2016
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 228 mm
Gewicht	268 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Allgemeines / Lexika
ISBN-10	1-63388-118-0 / 1633881180
ISBN-13	978-1-63388-118-1 / 9781633881181
Zustand	Neuware