Mapmatics: How We Navigate the World Through Numbers - Softcover

Rowinska, Paulina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1035007053 ISBN 13: 9781035007059

Publisher: Picador, 2024

Synopsis

How does a delivery driver distribute hundreds of packages in a single working day? Why does remote Alaska have such a large airport? Where should we look for elusive serial killers? The answers lie in the crucial connection between maps and maths.

In Mapmatics, Dr Paulina Rowinska embarks on a fascinating journey to discover the mathematical foundations of cartography and cartographical influences on mathematics. From a sixteenth-century map that remains an indispensable navigation tool despite emphasizing the North–South divide, and maps of voting districts that can empower or silence whole communities, to public transport maps that both guide and mislead passengers, she reveals how maps and maths shape not only our sense of space and time but also our worldview.

Through entertaining stories, surprising real-world examples and a cast of unforgettable characters, Mapmatics helps us to appreciate the mathematical methods and ideas behind maps. And, by illuminating how our world works, leaves us better equipped to understand and look after it.

About this title

About the Author

Paulina Rowinska is a Polish mathematician, science communicator and journalist living in New York. She has written for publications including Smithsonian Magazine, Undark and Quanta Magazine. She earned her PhD in mathematics at Imperial College London and completed a master’s degree in science journalism at MIT. Mapmatics, her first book, has been published in several countries and in Austria won the Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres (Science Book of the Year).

From the Back Cover

How does a delivery driver distribute hundreds of packages in a single working day?
Why does remote Alaska have such a large airport?
Where should we look for elusive serial killers?
The answers lie in the crucial connection between maps and maths.

In Mapmatics, Dr Paulina Rowinska embarks on a fascinating journey to discover the mathematical foundations of cartography and cartographical influences on mathematics.

From a sixteenth-century map that remains an indispensable navigation tool despite emphasizing the North–South divide to public transport maps that both guide and mislead passengers, she reveals how maps and maths shape not only our sense of space and time but also our worldview.

Through entertaining stories, surprising real-world examples and a cast of unforgettable characters, Mapmatics helps us to appreciate the mathematical methods and ideas behind maps. And, by illuminating how our world works, leaves us better equipped to understand and look after it.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1035007053
• ISBN 13: 9781035007059
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384