Name: A mathematician reads the newspaper
ISBN: 9780385482547

A mathematician reads the newspaper

Employing the same fun-filled, user-friendly, and quirkily insightful approach that put Innumeracy on best-seller lists, Paulos now leads us through the pages of the daily newspaper, revealing the hidden mathematical angles of countless articles. From the Senate, the SATs, and sex to crime, celebrities, and cults, Paulos takes stories that may not seem to involve mathematics at all and demonstrates how mathematical naivete can put readers at a distinct disadvantage. Whether he's using chaos theory to puncture economic and environmental predictions, applying logic and self-reference to clarify the hazards of spin doctoring and news compression, or employing arithmetic and common sense to give us a novel perspective on greed and relationships, Paulos never fails to entertain and enlighten.

What Hacker News says

DanBCJun 2014

I strongly agree.

What are the reasons for not showing shipping fees?

Is it a bit complicated? (Like US sales tax)

Or is it just a desire to show the lowest cost possible until the customer has almost finished the buying process, and then spring an $X charge and hope they don't abandon the cart?

Ebay UK and Amazon UK seem to mostly have this right. I wanted to buy a book. I found plenty at £0.01 but the shipping was clearly listed at £2.whatever. This makes me much more likely to actually buy.

(Incidentally the book was John Allen Paulos's "a mathematician reads the newspaper". A bargain at a few quid.)

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dmlorenzettiDec 2013

Check out "Physics for Future Presidents" by Richard Muller. It gives an overview of physics, emphasizing why the concepts are important in the modern world, rather than the math details.

If she's interested in biology, you might consider "Animals in Translation" by Temple Grandin. It's more about animals than about technology, but it touches on how understanding animals affects the low-tech systems that you use to handle them.

For interesting/easy intros to why some math skills are important, look at Darrell Huff's "How to Lie With Statistics" or John Allen Paulos' "Innumeracy" (or "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper").

I haven't read any of them, but I hear Petroski's books recommended.

For a great short read that touches on architectural engineering, law, and ethics, look for Joe Morgenstern's "Fifty-Nine Story Crisis" which appeared in the New Yorker in May 1995. It's about how the structural engineer for the Citicorp tower realized its design was flawed, after the tower had been built and occupied. You can find it on the web.

Some of these are not overtly about "learn this technology", but to me they all sell the idea of technology and science as both central to our lives and interesting.

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