Math Without Numbers

Math Without Numbers
Title Math Without Numbers PDF eBook
Author Milo Beckman
Publisher Penguin UK
Pages 224
Release 2021-01-07
Genre Mathematics
ISBN 0241507588

Download Math Without Numbers Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

'The whizz-kid making maths supercool. . . A brilliant book that takes everything we know (and fear) about maths out of the equation - starting with numbers' The Times 'A cheerful, chatty, and charming trip through the world of mathematics. . . Everyone should read this delightful book' Ian Stewart, author of Do Dice Play God? The only numbers in this book are the page numbers. The three main branches of abstract math - topology, analysis, and algebra - turn out to be surprisingly easy to grasp. Or at least, they are when our guide is a math prodigy. With forthright wit and warm charm, Milo Beckman upends the conventional approach to mathematics, inviting us to think creatively about shape and dimension, the infinite and the infinitesimal, symmetries, proofs, and all how all these concepts fit together. Why is there a million dollar prize for counting shapes? Is anything bigger than infinity? And how is the 'truth' of mathematics actually decided? A vivid and wholly original guide to the math that makes the world tick and the planets revolve, Math Without Numbers makes human and understandable the elevated and hypothetical, allowing us to clearly see abstract math for what it is: bizarre, beautiful, and head-scratchingly wonderful.

How Not to Be Wrong

How Not to Be Wrong
Title How Not to Be Wrong PDF eBook
Author Jordan Ellenberg
Publisher Penguin Press
Pages 480
Release 2014-05-29
Genre Mathematics
ISBN 1594205221

Download How Not to Be Wrong Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

A brilliant tour of mathematical thought and a guide to becoming a better thinker, How Not to Be Wrong shows that math is not just a long list of rules to be learned and carried out by rote. Math touches everything we do; It's what makes the world make sense. Using the mathematician's methods and hard-won insights-minus the jargon-professor and popular columnist Jordan Ellenberg guides general readers through his ideas with rigor and lively irreverence, infusing everything from election results to baseball to the existence of God and the psychology of slime molds with a heightened sense of clarity and wonder. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. How Not to Be Wrong shows us how--Publisher's description.

Mathematics without Numbers

Mathematics without Numbers
Title Mathematics without Numbers PDF eBook
Author Geoffrey Hellman
Publisher Clarendon Press
Pages 172
Release 1989-10-12
Genre Philosophy
ISBN 019152011X

Download Mathematics without Numbers Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Geoffrey Hellman presents a detailed interpretation of mathematics as the investigation of structural possibilities, as opposed to absolute, Platonic objects. After dealing with the natural numbers and analysis, he extends his approach to set theory, and shows how to dispense with a fixed universe of sets. Finally, he addresses problems of application to the physical world.

Do Dice Play God?

Do Dice Play God?
Title Do Dice Play God? PDF eBook
Author Ian Stewart
Publisher Profile Books
Pages 292
Release 2019-06-06
Genre Mathematics
ISBN 178283401X

Download Do Dice Play God? Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Uncertainty is everywhere. It lurks in every consideration of the future - the weather, the economy, the sex of an unborn child - even quantities we think that we know such as populations or the transit of the planets contain the possibility of error. It's no wonder that, throughout that history, we have attempted to produce rigidly defined areas of uncertainty - we prefer the surprise party to the surprise asteroid. We began our quest to make certain an uncertain world by reading omens in livers, tea leaves, and the stars. However, over the centuries, driven by curiosity, competition, and a desire be better gamblers, pioneering mathematicians and scientists began to reduce wild uncertainties to tame distributions of probability and statistical inferences. But, even as unknown unknowns became known unknowns, our pessimism made us believe that some problems were unsolvable and our intuition misled us. Worse, as we realized how omnipresent and varied uncertainty is, we encountered chaos, quantum mechanics, and the limitations of our predictive power. Bestselling author Professor Ian Stewart explores the history and mathematics of uncertainty. Touching on gambling, probability, statistics, financial and weather forecasts, censuses, medical studies, chaos, quantum physics, and climate, he makes one thing clear: a reasonable probability is the only certainty.

A Mind for Numbers

A Mind for Numbers
Title A Mind for Numbers PDF eBook
Author Barbara A. Oakley
Publisher TarcherPerigee
Pages 338
Release 2014-07-31
Genre Mathematics
ISBN 039916524X

Download A Mind for Numbers Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. In her book, she offers you the tools needed to get a better grasp of that intimidating but inescapable field.

Math on Trial

Math on Trial
Title Math on Trial PDF eBook
Author Leila Schneps
Publisher Basic Books
Pages 274
Release 2013-03-12
Genre Mathematics
ISBN 0465037941

Download Math on Trial Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In the wrong hands, math can be deadly. Even the simplest numbers can become powerful forces when manipulated by politicians or the media, but in the case of the law, your liberty -- and your life -- can depend on the right calculation. In Math on Trial, mathematicians Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez describe ten trials spanning from the nineteenth century to today, in which mathematical arguments were used -- and disastrously misused -- as evidence. They tell the stories of Sally Clark, who was accused of murdering her children by a doctor with a faulty sense of calculation; of nineteenth-century tycoon Hetty Green, whose dispute over her aunt's will became a signal case in the forensic use of mathematics; and of the case of Amanda Knox, in which a judge's misunderstanding of probability led him to discount critical evidence -- which might have kept her in jail. Offering a fresh angle on cases from the nineteenth-century Dreyfus affair to the murder trial of Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk, Schneps and Colmez show how the improper application of mathematical concepts can mean the difference between walking free and life in prison. A colorful narrative of mathematical abuse, Math on Trial blends courtroom drama, history, and math to show that legal expertise isn't't always enough to prove a person innocent.

How Math Explains the World

How Math Explains the World
Title How Math Explains the World PDF eBook
Author D. Stein
Publisher Harper Collins
Pages 320
Release 2009-03-17
Genre Education
ISBN 0061828688

Download How Math Explains the World Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

In How Math Explains the World, mathematician Stein reveals how seemingly arcane mathematical investigations and discoveries have led to bigger, more world-shaking insights into the nature of our world. In the four main sections of the book, Stein tells the stories of the mathematical thinkers who discerned some of the most fundamental aspects of our universe. From their successes and failures, delusions, and even duels, the trajectories of their innovations—and their impact on society—are traced in this fascinating narrative. Quantum mechanics, space-time, chaos theory and the workings of complex systems, and the impossibility of a "perfect" democracy are all here. Stein's book is both mind-bending and practical, as he explains the best way for a salesman to plan a trip, examines why any thought you could have is imbedded in the number p , and—perhaps most importantly—answers one of the modern world's toughest questions: why the garage can never get your car repaired on time. Friendly, entertaining, and fun, How Math Explains the World is the first book by one of California's most popular math teachers, a veteran of both "math for poets" and Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. And it's perfect for any reader wanting to know how math makes both science and the world tick.