Matt Parker

We would all be better off if everyone saw mathematics as a practical ally. Sadly, most of us fear maths and seek to avoid it. This is because mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills' - it never hesitates to bluntly point out when we are wrong. But it is only trying to help! Mathematics is a friend which can fill the gaps in what our brains can do naturally. Luckily, even though we don't like sharing our own mistakes, we love to read about what happens when maths errors make the everyday go horribly wrong. Matt Parker explores and explains near misses and mishaps with planes, bridges, the internet and big data as a way of showing us not only how important maths is, but how we can use it to our advantage. This comedy of errors is a brilliantly told series of disaster stories with a happy ending.

A Comedy of Maths Errors

Humble Pi

**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.

The book is fun, well written and divided in short chapters and sub chapters and that makes it very easy to read. The only complaint I have is that if you’ve followed Matt on YouTube over the years, most of the stories in the book will sound very familiar.

Manu

Jannis M

An entertaining account of Math errors in science and engineering of the recent decades. And puns... so many puns...

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER AN ADAM SAVAGE BOOK CLUB PICK The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” “Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations—that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes.” —Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn’t. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences. Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World

Vishwa

Entertaining read. I enjoyed how Parker wrote this with a humorous tone but still emphasizing the importance of accuracy, well built systems (to catch mistakes), etc. Without that tone, this would have been a laborious read. Good as a background read — can be read intermittently without losing much.

Pablo Dávila

A fun read for anyone remotely interested in math, even without any math knowledge.

Wojciech Waśniewski

Pretty fun read! More IT-focused than expected, and I've heard of many of the examples from the book but it was very entertaining (and scary) nonetheless.

B. K.

3.5/5 stars. Some parts were engaging, some parts lost my interest by getting more technical than I expected, but overall an enjoyable listen on audiobook. Narration by author Matt Parker conveys his enthusiasm and humor.

Adrian Kwiatkowski

Hooman Rostami

Abhishek

Jimmy Cerone

Yasser Yahia

Clodagh Nolan-Smith

Christopher Wheeler

Charlotte Silber

Ivan Zarea

Brooke Chapman 

Mutter

Liam Byrne 

Adam Aaronson

"This tour of real-world mathematical disasters reveals the importance of math in everyday life. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the ways math trips us up." --

Jason Long

Sarah Hamilton

Malin Alexander

"This tour of real-world mathematical disasters reveals the importance of math in everyday life. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the ways math trips us up"--

Humble Pi A Comedy of Maths Errors

Reviews