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A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 2012
On Sale: October 2, 2012
316 pages
ISBN: 0547517653
EAN: 9780547517650
Kindle: B006R8PL7G
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
A world-class mathematician and regular contributor to the New York Times hosts a delightful tour of the greatest ideas of math, revealing how it connects to literature, philosophy, law, medicine, art, business, even pop culture in ways we never imagined Did O.J. do it? How should you flip your mattress to get the maximum wear out of it? How does Google search the Internet? How many people should you date before settling down? Believe it or not, math plays a crucial role in answering all of these questions and more. Math underpins everything in the cosmos, including us, yet too few of us understand this universal language well enough to revel in its wisdom, its beauty β and its joy. This deeply enlightening, vastly entertaining volume translates math in a way that is at once intelligible and thrilling. Each trenchant chapter of The Joy of x offers an βaha!β moment, starting with why numbers are so helpful, and progressing through the wondrous truths implicit in π, the Pythagorean theorem, irrational numbers, fat tails, even the rigors and surprising charms of calculus. Showing why he has won awards as a professor at Cornell and garnered extensive praise for his articles about math for the New York Times, Strogatz presumes of his readers only curiosity and common sense. And he rewards them with clear, ingenious, and often funny explanations of the most vital and exciting principles of his discipline. Whether you aced integral calculus or arenβt sure what an integer is, youβll find profound wisdom and persistent delight in The Joy of x.
 Media BuzzTalk of the Nation - October 5, 2012
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