A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper - Softcover

Paulos, John Allen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 038548254X ISBN 13: 9780385482547

Publisher: Anchor, 1997

Synopsis

With the same user-friendly, quirky, and perceptive approach that made Innumeracy a bestseller, John Allen Paulos travels though the pages of the daily newspaper showing how math and numbers are a key element in many of the articles we read every day.  From the Senate, SATs, and sex, to crime, celebrities, and cults, he takes stories that may not seem to involve mathematics at all and demonstrates how a lack of mathematical knowledge can hinder our understanding of them.

About this title

Review:

In this book the author of Innumeracy : Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences reveals the hidden mathematical angles in countless media stories. His real life perspective on the statistics we rely on and how they can mislead is for anyone interested in gaining a more accurate view of their world. The book is written with a humorous and knowledgeable style that makes it great reading.

From the Publisher:

"After reading A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, it will be impossible to look at the newspaper in the same way."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"It would be great to have John Allen Paulos living next door. Every morning when you read the paper and come across some story that didn't seem quite right--that had the faint odor of illogic hovering about it-- you could just lean out the window and shout, 'John! Get the hell over here!'. A fun, spunky, wise little book that would be helpful to both the consumers of the news and its purveyors." --Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: Anchor
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 038548254X
• ISBN 13: 9780385482547
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224