Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
- Downloads：1796
- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-05-11 08:54:36
- Update Date：2025-09-06
- Status：finish
- Author：Matt Parker
- ISBN：0141989149
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
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Summary
**The First Ever Maths Book to be a No。1 Bestseller**
'Wonderful 。。。 superb' Daily Mail
What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to？ Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air？ A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power？ The answer is maths。 Or， to be precise， what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world。
As Matt Parker shows us， our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes， finance， engineering。 And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes， until 。。。 it doesn't。 Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches， near-misses and mishaps involving the internet， big data， elections， street signs， lotteries， the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team， Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up， and what this reveals about its essential place in our world。
Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills'， but we would all be better off， he argues， if we saw it as a practical ally。 This book shows how， by making maths our friend， we can learn from its pitfalls。 It also contains puzzles， challenges， geometric socks， jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes。 Getting it wrong has never been more fun。
'Wonderful 。。。 superb' Daily Mail
What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to？ Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air？ A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power？ The answer is maths。 Or， to be precise， what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world。
As Matt Parker shows us， our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes， finance， engineering。 And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes， until 。。。 it doesn't。 Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches， near-misses and mishaps involving the internet， big data， elections， street signs， lotteries， the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team， Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up， and what this reveals about its essential place in our world。
Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills'， but we would all be better off， he argues， if we saw it as a practical ally。 This book shows how， by making maths our friend， we can learn from its pitfalls。 It also contains puzzles， challenges， geometric socks， jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes。 Getting it wrong has never been more fun。
Reviews
Amy Mills
，
More like 3。5 stars。I mostly picked this up because it was recommended by Adam Savage （of Mythbusters fame）。 There are a lot of good anecdotes， with some occasional over-simplified mathematical digressions， but it's very much a "survey of" sort of book， and I tend to find those frustrating。 The parts that really interest me， I always want a more in-depth analysis on， and get annoyed when the book just moves on to the next thing。 That said， even the parts that didn't particularly interest me were More like 3。5 stars。I mostly picked this up because it was recommended by Adam Savage （of Mythbusters fame）。 There are a lot of good anecdotes， with some occasional over-simplified mathematical digressions， but it's very much a "survey of" sort of book， and I tend to find those frustrating。 The parts that really interest me， I always want a more in-depth analysis on， and get annoyed when the book just moves on to the next thing。 That said， even the parts that didn't particularly interest me were fascinating in their own right。The other reason I'm not rating this one higher is that a fair amount of the humor didn't quite land for me。 I usually enjoy British humor。 I'm wondering if this is a bit sideways from it， as the author was originally Australian？ Possibly I just wasn't quite parsing it because the style wasn't what I'm used to。 * shrugs *So I enjoyed it， but didn't love it， and would still recommend it to anyone interested in the ways that math interacts with the modern world。 。。。more
Yan
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The title is misleading。 This book talks more about software bugs than math errors。 Enjoyable but is not very in-depth account。
Oleg
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Nice （funny） collection of detailed stories about math mistakes。 The book contains some obvious things， but explanations are great （I'd not skip them）。 Warning: it contains lots of stories connected to computing mistakes， like integer overflow or floating-point errors （I didn't expect this）。 Nice （funny） collection of detailed stories about math mistakes。 The book contains some obvious things， but explanations are great （I'd not skip them）。 Warning: it contains lots of stories connected to computing mistakes， like integer overflow or floating-point errors （I didn't expect this）。 。。。more
Rakshith Kunchum
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I binge-read this book！ A pretty exciting and refreshing book for math lovers！
Semira D
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Read in the format of audiobook。 I spent most of this book snickering and constantly learning。 The audiobook is full of little snippets that I don't believe are in the physical book as they are referenced to as being audio only， and it gives a nice personal feel to a book that boils down to a simple statement of: EVERYONE makes mistakes。 Read in the format of audiobook。 I spent most of this book snickering and constantly learning。 The audiobook is full of little snippets that I don't believe are in the physical book as they are referenced to as being audio only， and it gives a nice personal feel to a book that boils down to a simple statement of: EVERYONE makes mistakes。 。。。more
Iain
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Looking for a laugh I picked this up， and it did the job。 A lot of the maths and computer coding went way over my head， but the real life examples of things going wrong were frequently funny and/or scary。 The denser bits dragged a little， but overall enjoyable。
A
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Stopped reading after chapter 5。 The math/engineering/cs stuff was all stuff I knew so the book did not provide any insight。
Tim Jamieson
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I hate maths and this book is excellent。 Read it。
Rebecca
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A lot of fun， although some of the technical descriptions were a bit outside my knowledge。 Still， highly recommend to anyone who wants to read something different。
Gregp
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7 out of 10
Toby
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Brilliant
Katrien
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Een boek met een collectie van fouten waarin de wiskunde een rol speelt， van verkeerde conversies naar programmeerfouten， van grappig naar dodelijk。Met een achtergrond in procesveiligheid kende ik een heel aantal van deze fouten， al lag de focus nog nooit op de wiskunde， en dat was een verfrissende nieuwe blik。En het is leesbaar en best grappig geschreven。Ik las dit boek naar aanleiding van een vermelding in de podcast Nerdland。。。。 wetenschap op een nerdy grappige manier。。 I like it！
Alex McLeod
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It is ok。 But there are just so many boring stories。 Nothing is interesting about just plain dumb mistakes。 I was hoping for actually slightly complex ideas that people got wrong in interesting ways。 In his defense， all the mainstream math books I've read are really really boring and this one is at least fun sometimes （the McDonalds menu and the leap-year stuff are all that come to mind at the moment）。 It is ok。 But there are just so many boring stories。 Nothing is interesting about just plain dumb mistakes。 I was hoping for actually slightly complex ideas that people got wrong in interesting ways。 In his defense， all the mainstream math books I've read are really really boring and this one is at least fun sometimes （the McDonalds menu and the leap-year stuff are all that come to mind at the moment）。 。。。more
Marc S
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Fantastic ReadGreat book for anyone interested in math， science， engineering or programming。 Well researched and easily understood。 Also has great photos and illustrations。
Kamya
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I really enjoyed this and thought it was pretty funny and informative and a funny reminder on how humans are so prone to mistakes。 Also， more books should have page numbers in descending order。
Steve Shambaugh
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"Because we all make mistakes。 Relentlessly。 And that is nothing to be feared。 Many people I speak to say that， when they were at school， they were put off mathematics because they simply didn't get it。 But half the challenge of learning math is accepting that you may not be naturally good at it， but if you put the effort in， you can learn it。 。。。 'Mathematicians aren't people who find math easy; they're people who enjoy how hard it is。'" "Because we all make mistakes。 Relentlessly。 And that is nothing to be feared。 Many people I speak to say that， when they were at school， they were put off mathematics because they simply didn't get it。 But half the challenge of learning math is accepting that you may not be naturally good at it， but if you put the effort in， you can learn it。 。。。 'Mathematicians aren't people who find math easy; they're people who enjoy how hard it is。'" 。。。more
Peter
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This was a light and quick read about mistakes people have made over the past few decades。 It wasn't exactly riveting reading by any stretch of the imagination， mostly because I knew about many of the cases already。 The author did a decent job at grouping the various examples by some kind of category and imparting some humour to the otherwise dry content。 I also liked the amount of detail in the explanations which was enough to get a good grasp of the problem while keeping things moving along at This was a light and quick read about mistakes people have made over the past few decades。 It wasn't exactly riveting reading by any stretch of the imagination， mostly because I knew about many of the cases already。 The author did a decent job at grouping the various examples by some kind of category and imparting some humour to the otherwise dry content。 I also liked the amount of detail in the explanations which was enough to get a good grasp of the problem while keeping things moving along at a nice pace。 Hence the 3 stars: I liked it for what it was。 It's not going to blow anyone's mind， but it's also written competently enough to make it a fun read and make it feel like you've learned something。 Not that I think there's enough depth here to serve as anything other than a source of some fun anecdotes。 If you're not mathematically， technologically， or engineeringly inclined， this is a great roundup of the kinds of problems that come up in those fields and seems written with that kind of audience in mind。 However， if you're already familiar with those somewhat overlapping areas， there's a good chance you've come across the kinds of issues discussed which can still be fun。 。。。more
Kirby Gordon
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very good book for calibrating the lay-person to the level of intricacy in engineering
David
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Another slice for me， pleaseI really enjoyed this book。 It was interesting and informative and the content was delivered with great wit and style。 Having watched multiple videos of Matt on YouTube， several of the anecdotes were familiar but that wasn't a problem for me。 The sections dealing with Excel and coding were particularly pertinent to me; I've made many similar mistakes over my career though not， as far as I know， with any book-worthy consequences Another slice for me， pleaseI really enjoyed this book。 It was interesting and informative and the content was delivered with great wit and style。 Having watched multiple videos of Matt on YouTube， several of the anecdotes were familiar but that wasn't a problem for me。 The sections dealing with Excel and coding were particularly pertinent to me; I've made many similar mistakes over my career though not， as far as I know， with any book-worthy consequences 。。。more
Nathan Schwartz
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Fun if you like maths
Mariangela
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https://www。goodreads。com/review/edit。。。# https://www。goodreads。com/review/edit。。。# 。。。more
Christina
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I really enjoyed this！ I love trivia so this was very informative and I liked that the writing style was very conversational。
Graham
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Parker is an accomplished 'numbers' journalist in the tradition of Ben Goldacre or Tim Harford。 He is clearly totally on top of his subject， and it's all very authoritative and reliable。 There are some really great， entertaining and informative anecdotes about numbers-based foul-ups。 As a former computer programmer myself， I really enjoyed being transported back in time to the world of 32-bit versus 64-bit floating point。 However I am not sure the extent to which I would recommend this to someon Parker is an accomplished 'numbers' journalist in the tradition of Ben Goldacre or Tim Harford。 He is clearly totally on top of his subject， and it's all very authoritative and reliable。 There are some really great， entertaining and informative anecdotes about numbers-based foul-ups。 As a former computer programmer myself， I really enjoyed being transported back in time to the world of 32-bit versus 64-bit floating point。 However I am not sure the extent to which I would recommend this to someone who doesn't already like binary and hexadecimal。 I fully appreciate that Parker explains all this for laypeople， and does not assume any programming or math background。 I just have no way of telling whether these explanations will （a） work and （b） entertain people who don't already know a lot of this stuff。 There is a big exception to my criticism on this point: his chapter on correlation and causation is not ground-breaking， but it is the best I have read， and highly recommendable。 。。。more
Margaret
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Enjoyable read， with lots of examples of flubs and even disasters from us all too fallible humans。
Joshua Barriger
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Good math and great stories！ Thoroughly enjoyed。Minus 1 star because the author thinks it will win him social points to make fun of Trump as often as possible。 Tedious。
Mike Reddy
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Great read。 Well written and developed。 Suggest some generic math background。
Mads Ess
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The audiobook is phenomenal for anyone who likes Matt's YouTube channel。 The audiobook is phenomenal for anyone who likes Matt's YouTube channel。 。。。more
Siddhartha Das
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Found it dense in many parts。 Been sometime since I left doing some good old mathematics but this was difficult to grasp。 Majority of the anecdotes were good but some of them just did not drive the point at all。
Pat
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I never wanted this book to finish， it was that enjoyable。 Highly recommended！
Christopher Ried
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