A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

Sep 20, 2024 8:14 PM

Author:John Allen Paulos

From crime figures to health scares, election polls to stock market forecasts, numbers make the news all the time. But are they accurate?

John Allen Paulos, travels through the pages of an average newspaper, revealing how mathematics is at the heart of the articles we read every day - even horoscopes and the sports pages - and how often they mislead us. By understanding simple concepts such as probability, chaos theory and game theory, you'll be able to see through faulty statistics, stock market forecasters and conspiracy theorists - and make the figures truly add up.

Reviews

Mathematics is all around you. And it's a great defence against the sharks, cowboys and liars who want your vote, your money, or your life - as Paulos's latest book makes crystal clear

—— Ian Stewart, author of Does God Play Dice?

Fascinating

—— Scotsman

What makes Roth such an important novelist is the effortless way he brings together the trivial and the profoundly serious

—— Independent

A masterful performance

—— Spectator

Nemesis is an artfully constructed suspenseful novel with a cunning twist

—— J.M. Coetzee

The genius of Philip Roth...back at his imperious best in this heartbreaking tale... The eloquence of Roth's storytelling makes Nemesis one of his most haunting works

—— Daily Mail

Cantor is one of Roth's best creations and the atmosphere of terror is masterfully fashioned

—— Tibor Fischer , Sunday Telegraph

Very fine, very unsettling

—— Douglas Kennedy , The Times

A perfectly proportioned Greek tragedy played out against the background of the polio epidemic that swept Newark, New Jersey, during the summer of 1944

—— Adrian Turpin , Financial Times

Outstanding

—— Sunday Times

A 2011 favourite

—— Wendy Cope , Observer, Books of the Year

The year's most unusual travel book

—— Tom Chesshyre , The Times

[An] eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book

—— Daily Telegraph

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a lyrical triumph. On Britain’s grotty margins, the duo trace “desire paths” to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

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