A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

John Allen Paulos

Anchor Books, 1995 - Mathematics - 212 pages

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

"After reading "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, " it will beimpossible to look at the newspaper in the same way."-- "PhiladelphiaInquirer"

"It would be great to have John Allen Paulos living next door. Everymorning when you read the paper and come across some story that didn't seemquite right--that had the faint odor of illogic hovering about it-- you couldjust 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 thenews and its purveyors." -- "Washington Post Book World"

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - setnahkt - LibraryThing

Sadly dated; what we need now is A Mathematician Surfs the Web. Paulos is reasonably non-doctrinaire, with examples that should annoy or outrage any political persuasion – although he’s careful not to ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Razinha - LibraryThing

Paulos is a witty mathematician and makes excellent points in his analyses of newspapers focusing on the numbers, statistics, ignorance and misrepresentations. Arranged as newspaper content, with ...

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Is It Vietnam or World War: 14
• Afta Nafta Lafta Free Traders Exult: 27

About the author

John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University. His books include the bestseller "Innumeracy: Mathematical" "Illiteracy and Its Consequences "(H&W, 1988), "Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up", "A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market", and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspapers".

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper; Anchor Books
• Author: John Allen Paulos
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Anchor Books, 1995
• ISBN: 038548254X, 9780385482547
• Length: 212 pages
• Subjects: Mathematics / General