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The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
Ebook The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
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Review
Amazon Best Books of 2012: Science and Math “A delightful exploration of the beauty and fun of mathematics, in the best tradition of Lewis Carroll, George Gamow, and Martin Gardner. The Joy of x will entertain you, amaze you, and make you smarter.”—Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Language Instinct “Steven Strogatz should do for math what Julia Child did for cookery. He shows that this stuff really matters, and he shows that it can nourish us.”—James Gleick, author of The Information and Chaos “Steve Strogatz may be the only person alive with the skill to pied piper me into the murky abyss of set theory. I literally learned something on every page, despite my innumerate brain. This is a fantastic book, conveyed with clarity, technical mastery and infectious joy.”—Jad Abumrad, host of Radiolab “This joyous book will remind you just how beautiful and mesmerizing math can be. Steve Strogatz is the teacher we all wish we had.”—Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein “I loved this beautiful book from the first page. With his unique ingenuity and affable charm, Strogatz disassembles mathematics as a subject, both feared and revered, and reassembles it as a world, both accessible and magical. The Joy of x is, well, a joy.” —Janna Levin, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Barnard College, Columbia University, and author of How the Universe Got Its Spots and A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines “Amazingly, mathematicians can see patterns in the universe that the rest of us are usually blind to. With clarity and dry wit, The Joy of x opens a window onto this hidden world with its landscapes of beauty and wonder.”—Alan Alda “This book is, simply put, fantastic. It introduces the reader to the underlying concepts of mathematics—presenting reasons for its unfamiliar language and explaining conceptual frameworks that do in fact make understanding complex problems easier. In a world where mathematics is essential but, largely, poorly understood, Steve Strogatz’s teaching skills and deft writing style are an important contribution.”—Lisa Randall, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science, Harvard University, and author of Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven's Door “Strogatz’s graceful prose is perfectly pitched for a popular math book: authoritative without being patronizing, friendly without being whimsical, and always clear and accessible. His x marks the spot—and hits it.”—Alex Bellos, author of Here's Looking at Euclid “Strogatz has discovered a magical function that transforms ‘math’ into ‘joy,’ page after wonderful page. He takes everything that ever mystified you about math and makes it better than clear—he makes it wondrous, delicious, and amazing.”—Daniel Gilbert, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Stumbling on Happiness
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From the Back Cover
"Delightful . . . easily digestible chapters include plenty of helpful examples and illustrations. You'll never forget the Pythagorean theorem again!"—Scientific AmericanMany people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, insight, and brilliant illustrations.Whether he is illuminating how often you should flip your mattress to get the maximum lifespan from it, explaining just how Google searches the internet, or determining how many people you should date before settling down, Strogatz shows how math connects to every aspect of life. Discussing pop culture, medicine, law, philosophy, art, and business, Strogatz is the math teacher you wish you’d had. Whether you aced integral calculus or aren’t sure what an integer is, you’ll find profound wisdom and persistent delight in The Joy of x. “A delightful exploration of the beauty and fun of mathematics, in the best tradition of Lewis Carroll, George Gamow, and Martin Gardner. The Joy of x will entertain you, amaze you, and make you smarter.” — Steven Pinker, author of How the Mind Works“Steven Strogatz should do for math what Julia Child did for cookery. He shows that this stuff really matters, and he shows that it can nourish us.” — James Gleick, author of The Information and Chaos[AU PHOTO] STEVEN STROGATZ is a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University. A renowned teacher and one of the world’s most highly cited mathematicians, he has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio’s RadioLab. He is the author of Sync and The Calculus of Friendship, and the recipient of a lifetime achievement award for math communication.
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Product details
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (October 1, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0544105850
ISBN-13: 978-0544105850
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.4 out of 5 stars
296 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#3,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
An entertaining, well-written and informative book - suitable for folks with little or no background in math, but also for those who know a fair bit of math (you will still learn a lot, I suspect). Amusingly written, with a pleasing authorial voice.One serious problem with the Kindle edition: the extensive and informative notes at the end of the book are not properly linked within the body of the text - no reference links or footnotes numbers at all! So, you don't know which topics in a given chapter have notes, and you don't even know about the existence of said notes until you stumble on them at the end. So, go for the paper edition, *not* the Kindle edition.Whoever does the technical editing for Kindle editions of non-fiction is doing a rotten job - several other books I have purchased for the Kindle have had similar issues. I am tempted to only use the Kindle for fiction, not for non-fiction.Too bad Amazon doesn't allow one to rate the content separately from a rating on the digitization for the Kindle; I gave 5 stars for content, but would have rated the technical aspects of the Kindle at best 2 stars....
I just want to address one matter of how the kindle ebook looks. This book has lots of illustrations and formulas -- as you would expect for a popular approach to math. I'm reading this on a 9 inch color tablet (reading on the kindle app for android). Everything renders beautifully. Perhaps the rendering isn't as good on e-ink devices, but I'd bet that the real issue is screen size. (i.e., a 6 inch device probably would be a struggle to read). There are a lot of graphics and photos; it's a pretty book, but because of the large file size, you might consider removing your local copy and keeping it on the cloud when you're done.
A few times I've seen postings on Facebook where people are proud of the fact that they "got through another day without using math". I'm amused but a little sad that they think math is unnecessary in day-to-day life. I wonder if they really didn't use math or did it without thinking of it as math.Or is it true that since they don't have a background in math they just ignore the problems in their lives where math could help Now, I confess I was an English major and ignored math and the sciences; but I've come to undertstand that more math would have been helpful.Steven Strogatz shows us the basic concepts of numbers and math, building from the simple: Sesame Street characters counting fish, to the mind boggling: some infinities are larger than others.We first learn about the power of numbers when we go from calling out "fish, fish, fish" for each fish we see to grouping them together in the abstract idea of "three fish". Numbers are abstract ideas we use to stand in so we can easily measure and compare things. Once we build a set of relationship rules (addition, subtraction) we continue to develop methods of relationships. For example we build fractions as "ratios of integers - hence teir technical name, rational numbers." (p 29). These rules continue to build upon one another and take us through algebra and geometry to calculus. As an example Strogatz demonstrates that adding "all the consecutive odd numbers, starting from 1: The sums above, remarkably, always turn out to be perfect squares" (p10).My biggest takeaway from the book is that when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. You can only use the tools in your belt to solve the problems you encounter. And worse if you do use the tools in your belt you may get the wrong answer. Or worse yet; you may have the correct tool set but use them dishonestly to misdirect people - those people like me - who didn't study enough math.An example of that is statistics, where figures lie and liers figure. Most of us have at least a passing understanding of normal distributions (bell curves). They "can be proven to arise whenever a large number of mildly random effects of similar size, all acting independently, are added together. And many things are like that." (p 178). Many, but not all. "[P]lenty of phenomena deviate from this pattern yet still manage to follow a pattern of their own." (p 178). But we are more comfortable with the normal distributions and have the tools (the mean average) to work with them. In Power-law distributions the "modes, medians, and means do not agree because of the skewed, asymmetrical shapes of their L-curves. President Bush made use of this property when he stated that his 2003 tax cuts had saved families an average of $1,586 each. Though that is technically correct, he was conveniently referring to the mean rebate, a figure that averaged in the whopping rebates of hundreds of thousands of dollars received by the richest 0.1 percent of the population. The tail on the far right of the income distribution is known to follow a pwoer law, and in situations like this, the mean is a misleading statistic to use because it's far from typical. Most families, in fat got less that %650. The median was a lot less than the mean." (p. 180)I've been intimidated by calculus but Strogatz does an effective job of making it approachable - you won't learn calculus from the book but you'll get a glimmer of understanding. If we want to find the area of a circle we start by fitting a square inside and calculate its area; then turn it into an 8 sided figure - like slices of a pizza - and calculating its area we get closer yet. And so on as the number of pie slices approaches infinity.Strogatz wraps things up with the theory of infinite sets using the illustration of the Hilbert Hotel which is always full but there is always room for one more. I can't do it justice here but he shows how the infinity of the real numbers between 0 and 1 is bigger than the infinity of whole numbers. Whaaaat?Finally I became acquainted with the "recreational mathemusician" Vi Hart through this book. She is a video illustrator who does some marvelous work demonstrating mathematic concepts. Even if you don't read this book (which you totally should), check out Vi Harts story of Wind and Mr. Ug; a couple of two dimensional beings who live on a transparent Möbius strip.
This is an enjoyable read, even for the  math phobic. The formulas and math symbols are kept to a minimum. Just when you start feeling a bit overwhelmed, the chapter comes to its conclusion.I have found that if you want to bring a conversation to an end, suggest mathematics as a topic. Too many people are insecure about their math capabilities and simply don't think math can be fun or interesting. Reading this book might change that attitude. Certainly 259 pages of large text and big margins isn't too much of commitment.One example from the book that got me thinking and sharing: the bagel cut that produces 2 chain-linked halves. With this inspiration, I constructed a 360 degree möbius strip and cut it down the middle. Then I constructed a regular 180 degree möbius strip and cut it at the 1/3 width of the strip. Fascinating results! That is what a good science/math book will do for you: get you to try new things on your own and pat yourself on the back for what you have "discovered."
I found this book to be a fun discussion of many topics in mathematics. As a mathematician wannabe (kinda late in the game for me) my only issue was that it left some of the theorems unproven just at it was getting interesting. But I also understand that he was aiming at folks with not much more than high-school math.Hi notes are really good, though I wish he had them at the end of every chapter rather than at the end of the book.Chapter 26 was a GREAT intro to group theory.I think he could have added a chapter or two on some games that generated mathematical interest, like the 15-puzzle that was popular with kids, or Rubik's Cube or Instant Insanity? Anyone remember that last one? In high school I saw an article about that game in a copy of American Mathematical Monthly. Then there is the famous riddle of the Kronenberg bridges, the one that kicked off the field of topology.OK, that's a few missed items.
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