Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories - Hardcover

Paulos, John Allen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465051588 ISBN 13: 9780465051588

Publisher: Basic Books, 1998

Synopsis

Explores the ways in which statistical analysis and mathematical logic apply to everyday life

About this title

Review

Mathematician John Allen Paulos bravely bridges the scientific and literary cultures with this amusing, enlightening look at numbers and stories. If you think those two things go together like a "horse and a paperclip," as Allen wryly observes, you only have to look at phenomena like the Bible codes, the stock market's ups and downs, and the Clinton sex scandal to begin to understand the hidden bonds between them. Put simply, mathematics can describe everything that happens, and everything that happens contextualises mathematics. In demonstrating this, Paulos continues the noble numeracy crusade he began with A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper and Beyond Numeracy. Perhaps the most compelling thought experiments in the book are those of the statistics of stereotyping and race relations. Paulos shows, mathematically, that minority status makes achieving equality extraordinarily difficult.

If you want to keep hold of your comfortable worldview, don't read Once Upon a Number. But you'll be missing out on an unforgettable reminder of what chance, coincidence and odds really mean, along with several valuable life lessons that may help you understand lost socks, racism and mistaken identity. --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com

About the Author

John Allen Paulos is presidential scholar at Temple University. He is the bestselling author of INNUMERACY (1989 - 22,000 copies sold) , BEYOND NUMERACY (1991) and A MATHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER (1996), all published by Penguin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0465051588
• ISBN 13: 9780465051588
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224