Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life

Sherman K Stein

John Wiley & Sons Canada, Limited, 1999 - Mathematics - 288 pages

An engaging survey of the fundamental concepts of mathematics and the many ways math is used in everyday life. This is a stimulating and simple reintroduction to all the math we all learned in high school but have forgotten, using many examples of how math applies to the real world. Highlights the math topics that are most relevant to everyday concerns, such as how statistics can be misleading and how interest on savings accounts accrues at different interest rates. Also explores the most fundamental mysteries and amazing properties, such as why two negative numbers multiplied together make a positive number and why fractions can be easily multiplied but not easily added. Uses a multitude of examples from real life such as how extremely large numbers are used to write unbreakable computer codes and how the slope of a curve is used by biologists to calculate the rate of growth of species. It walks the reader step by step through simple solutions to each problem explored.

About the author

SHERMAN K. STEIN is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Davis, where he received a distinguished teaching award. He is also a recipient of the Lester R. Ford Prize of the Mathematical Association of America for excellence in exposition on math. He is the author of Mathematics: The Man-Made Universe and The Guided Inquiry Series on math for high school students. He lives in Davis, California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Strength in Numbers: Discovering the Joy and Power of Mathematics in Everyday Life
• Author: Sherman K Stein
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Canada, Limited, 1999
• ISBN: 1620457806, 9781620457801
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Mathematics / General; Science / General