How math holds the keys to improving one’s health, wealth, and love life

What’s the best diet for overall health and weight management? How can we change our finances to retire earlier? How can we maximize our chances of finding our soul mate? In The Calculus of Happiness, Oscar Fernandez shows us that math yields powerful insights into health, wealth, and love. Relying on only high school–level math (precalculus with a dash of calculus), Fernandez uses everyday experiences to provide context for his mathematical insights and guides us through surprising results. Important formulas are linked to a dozen free online interactive calculators on the book’s website, allowing one to personalize equations. Every chapter ends with a summary of essential lessons and takeaways, and for advanced math fans, Fernandez includes the mathematical derivations in the appendices.

“Surveys a wide variety of ways that mathematics can be used to improve decision making and general well-being.”—Chris Wilson, TIME.com
“Readers are sure to get a sense of how content from algebra and precalculus can help inform us about important decisions that are almost universally relevant.”—Jason M. Graham, MAA Reviews
“Brilliant. . . . Once you realise it all boils down to maths, you will wake up happier, wealthier and healthier tomorrow morning, and we have Oscar E. Fernandez to thank for that.”—Nick Smith, Engineering and Technology
“The Calculus of Happiness . . . demonstrate[s] how mathematics can yield powerful insights into everyday life."—Helen Thomson, New Scientist
“Fernandez generates such enthusiasm [for studying math] by considering topics that people do want to learn more about—food, money, other people—and skillfully weaving solid mathematical concepts within these topics.”—Sandra L. Arlinghaus, Mathematical Reviews

Oscar E. Fernandez is associate professor of mathematics at Wellesley College and the author of Everyday Calculus and Calculus Simplified (both Princeton).