A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

by John Allen Paulos

Book Overview

John Allen Paulos is a master at shedding mathematical lights on our everyday world: What exactly did Lani Guinier say about quotas?What is the probability of identifying a murderer through DNA... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038548254X
• ISBN13: 9780385482547
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

transformed my reading of the paper

A funny, instructional tour of the newspaper as seen by a mathematician. Each section starts out with a headline and a brief sketch of a news story and then Paulos discusses in a witty and enlightening way the insights that mathematics provides. Deals with everything from politics and economics to sports and food. Every reporter and serious reader should know what's in this book.

If only we could get journalists to read it...

This book puts the world into a meaningful mathematical perspective. News, by its nature, focuses on the unusual, but it makes the unlikely seem commonplace. This book does a great job of helping us understand the probabilities of our world

Who would have thought a Mathematics book could entertain?

Strangely enough (or so one might think) I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I even caught myself chuckling aloud a few times. A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper de-mystifies the role Math plays in our everyday lives, and sheds a little (much needed) clarity on many of the "truths" behind the statistics we hear about all the time. I highly encourage anyone (even self proclaimed or closet mathematophobes) to read this book. It teaches a little, encourages a little, explains a little, and entertains a lot

A must have for any instructor of the social sciences

Paulos' warm and inviting style and his relationship with newspapers made me reminisce of the evenings I spent reading the "green pages" while visiting my grandparents in Milwaukee. I enjoyed his tour of scientific journalism and working through his math puzzlers. This book provides perfect examples for applying statistical knowledge in the real world. It's a wonderful tool for demonstrating the fruits of critical thinking. I especially like the short chapter format. Any stats instructor (or any social science instructor for that matter) will be glad they read it