Alex's Adventures in Numberland :Tenth Anniversary Edition
Alex's Adventures in Numberland :Tenth Anniversary Edition
paperback
Published:
14 May, 2020
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Description
A tenth anniversary edition of the iconic book about the wonderful world of maths
Sunday Times bestseller | Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize
‘Original and highly entertaining' Sunday Times
‘A page turner about humanity's strange, never easy and, above all, never dull relationship with numbers' New Scientist
‘Will leave you hooked on numbers' Daily Telegraph
In this richly entertaining and accessible book, Alex Bellos explodes the myth that maths is best left to the geeks, and demonstrates the remarkable ways it's linked to our everyday lives.
Alex explains the surprising geometry of the 50p piece, and the strategy of how best to gamble it in a casino. He shines a light on the mathematical patterns in nature, and on the peculiar predictability of random behaviour. He eats a potato crisp whose revolutionary shape was unpalatable to the ancient Greeks, and he shows the deep connections between maths, religion and philosophy.
From the world's fastest mental calculators in Germany to numerologists in the US desert, from a startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan to venerable Hindu sages in India, these dispatches from 'Numberland' are an unlikely but exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs. The world of maths is a much friendlier and more colourful place than you might have imagined.
This anniversary edition is fully revised and updated.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781526623997 |
| ISBN10 | 1526623994 |
| Number Of Pages | 448 |
| Item Weight | 388 g |
| Product Dimensions | 128 x 196 x 30 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Original and highly entertaining * Sunday Times *
Will leave you hooked on numbers * Daily Telegraph *
A page turner about humanity's strange, never easy and, above all, never dull relationship with numbers * New Scientist *
Outstanding ... The style is laced with humour, but at all times, the star of the show is mathematics * Ian Stewart, Prospect *
If there was one book that was going to be compulsory for the nation to read it would be this one -- Evan Davies
A magical mystery tour . . . Philosophy, religion, magic, history and basic sheep-counting are gather together in Bellos’s bag of numbers * The Times *
Revealing and insightful * Independent *
A wholly original, beautifully written book about mathematics that does its subject justice but is so widely accessible that it will please everyone regardless of their numeracy * New Scientist *
An entertaining and accessible account of how maths underpins our lives. Maths will never appear so forbidding again * TES *
It is to be hoped that the uncountable delights of Bellos’s book, its verve and feeling for mathematics, convey its enchantments to a new generation * Times Literary Supplement *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Alex Bellos writes about maths and football. He has a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Oxford, and is a former South America correspondent for the Guardian. His books include Alex Through the Looking Glass, Visions of Numberland, Can You Solve My Problems? and So You Think You’ve Got Problems? as well as the Football School series of children’s books, which he co-authors. He has been the puzzle columnist for the Guardian since 2015. Alex lives in London with his wife and two sons.