Humble Pi

A Comedy of Maths Errors

Matt Parker

$24.99

Paperback

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English

Penguin
17 March 2020

Mathematics & Sciences; History of mathematics; Humour

The first ever maths book to be a No.1 Bestseller shows us what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world

What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? How do billions of dollars

mysteriously vanish into thin air? How does 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. 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.

By: Matt Parker
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 248g
ISBN: 9780141989143
ISBN 10: 0141989149
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 17 March 2020
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Originally a maths teacher from Australia, Matt Parker now lives in Godalming in a house full of almost every retro video-game console ever made. He is fluent in binary and could write your name in a sequence of noughts and ones in seconds. He loves doing maths and stand-up, often simultaneously. When he's not working as the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, he's performing in sold-out live comedy shows, spreading his love of maths via TV and radio, or converting photographs into Excel spreadsheets. He is the author of Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension.

Reviews for Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

An entertaining and often alarming journey through the numerical blunders made over the years. * The Big Issue * I just finished the new book by irrepressible maths enthusiast @standupmaths, and it's GREAT! -- Adam Savage, ex-host of 'Mythbusters' * Twitter * Bought it yesterday, enjoying it enormously, well done! -- Dara O Briain * Twitter * Numbers to die for. Four stars. -- Simon Griffith * Mail on Sunday * Parker is consistently very funny . . . highly entertaining. * The Guardian * Matt Parker has pulled off something wonderful . . . his stories are superb. -- Marcus Berkmann * The Daily Mail *