Geekspeak
How Life + Mathematics = Happiness
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
How big is your vocabulary?
How heavy is your house?
Do the dead outnumber the living?
What are the best words to use in a personal ad?
We humans are a curious species, prone to think, ruminate, reflect, cogitate, mull over, and philosophize. We long to explain away the world around us, to answer all those seeming unanswerables: Why are we here? Is there a God? Is there life after death? And, above all, how many houseflies does it take to pull a car?
A confirmed and superior geek, Dr. Graham Tattersall has rescued math from the prison of the classroom and put it to use in novel and unexpected ways to explain some oft-pondered mysteries of the world. Geekspeak is an essential tool that will help you exercise your brain and solve the unsolvable, make you sound intelligent so you can impress your friends, and enable you to better understand the fascinating world in which we live in ways never possible before.
Math has a new champion, and the geeks a new king.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The best kept secret in math is how much one can accomplish through estimation and educated guessing: it's possible to take what one knows in general, apply that to an amazing range of problems in daily life, and obtain surprisingly workable solutions to questions like "What are the best words to use in a personal ad?" or "How many flies would it take to pull a car?" In this friendly primer, UK "freelance engineer" Tattersall guides readers through 26 "problems" meant to demonstrate how anyone can benefit from some armchair arithmetic. Like all problem solvers, Tattersall doesn't leave his brain at the office, but uses "short cut" techniques constantly; in short chapters, he describes his process by tackling a different question with a number of methods, as well as practical applications for the solution (say, an estimation of the human brain's processing speed). Though he gilds the lily of mathematical practicality, Tatterall's welcoming attitude, solid principles and intriguing examples should stick with the logically or mathematically inclined. B&w illus.
