Six Maths Essentials: How to Model the World - Hardcover

Tao, Terence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241829488 ISBN 13: 9780241829486

Publisher: Pelican, 2026

Synopsis

The ‘Mozart of mathematics’ (New York Times) takes us on a tour of the core ideas of mathematical thinking

In Six Maths Essentials, the renowned mathematician Terence Tao shows how mathematics has evolved from counting and geometry into a flexible set of tools for understanding an increasingly complex world. He moves effortlessly from children discovering infinity through play, to the numbers that underpin our online lives; from Johannes Kepler using algebra to price a barrel of wine, to curved geometries that explain why GPS works and planes don’t fly in straight lines on a map. Along the way, dice games, insurance policies and financial crises illuminate probability’s promise―and its limits―while deceptively simple rules give rise to chaos, pattern and life itself.

Playful and wise, this is the best entry point for understanding how mathematics works. Contrary to popular perception, maths, Tao insists, isn’t magic―it's a powerful way of thinking from first principles and modelling the world that anyone can learn.

About this title

About the Author

Terence Tao is an Australian American professor of mathematics based at UCLA. The recipient of a Fields Medal, a MacArthur Genius Grant and a Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, among many other accolades, he is one of the most decorated and prolific mathematicians working today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pelican
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241829488
• ISBN 13: 9780241829486
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160