Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories

Paulos, John Allen

ISBN 10: 0465051588 / ISBN 13: 9780465051588

Published by Basic Books, New York, 1998

About this Item

8vo, 214 pp., Remainder mark lower edge.

Seller Inventory # 007790

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories
• Publisher: Basic Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465051588
• ISBN 13: 9780465051588
• Binding: hardcover
• Edition: 1st.
• Condition: Fine copy in fine dust jacket
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Mathematics

About this title

Synopsis

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

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