How to Bake Pi: Easy recipes for understanding complex maths by Eugenia Cheng (PDF)

Description

Möbius bagels, Euclid’s flourless chocolate cake and apple pi – this is maths, but not as you know it.In How to Bake Pi, mathematical crusader and star baker Eugenia Cheng has rustled up a batch of delicious culinary insights into everything from simple numeracy to category theory (‘the mathematics of mathematics’), via Fermat, Poincaré and Riemann.Maths is much more than simultaneous equations and pr2 : it is an incredibly powerful tool for thinking about the world around us. And once you learn how to think mathematically, you’ll never think about anything – cakes, custard, bagels or doughnuts; not to mention fruit crumble, kitchen clutter and Yorkshire puddings – the same way again.Stuffed with moreish puzzles and topped with a generous dusting of wit and charm, How to Bake Pi is a foolproof recipe for a mathematical feast.*Previously published under the title Cakes, Custard & Category Theory*

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐There’s probably nothing fundamentally wrong with this book. It’s just not the book that I was looking for.I am a software developer by trade, and while I can’t say I’ve taken great interest in category theory, category theory seems to have taken great interest in my field recently. And, oh boy, isn’t it irritating when people are trying to tell you how all sorts of useful stuff fall out of co-Yoneda or Kan extensions, and you haven’t the foggiest what the heck they’re even talking about.So I tried to remedy that. I tried Lawvere and Simmons, Barr and Wells, Bartosz Milewski and tons of other stuff. Inevitably, in each case, there would come a moment when I’d look at the time and realize that for the last two hours or so the text spoke strictly of morphisms and objects and terminal algebras, without mentioning anything that would allow me to put all of that into *any* kind of context I could relate to; and that, consequently, for the last hour and a half I could no longer give a damn about all the abstract nonsense.This book didn’t help either, if for different reasons. It just doesn’t aim to introduce you to category theory, not really. So while it discusses category theory at some length, it’s certainly nowhere even near being a textbook or an introductory text. On the other hand, I did have one extremely useful, but deeply disappointing insight while reading it.The central theme of the book is how math is all about abstraction and generalization, and, in particular, how CT seeks to abstract away the irrelevant details in the many different disciplines comprising modern math to find some grand unifying themes. None of this sounds like something deeply surprising — more like the “duh, obvious” kind of thing, but it’s while thinking about this that I came to conclusion that my quest for a “less abstract CT book” might be inescapably futile because of the “duh, obvious” contradiction in the definition of what I seek itself.And doesn’t that make me a sad little coder. Heck yes, it does.But, well, now that I’ve told you what this book isn’t — what *is* this book? I’m sure different readers will come away with vastly different impressions, but I read it as a passionate and somewhat touching love letter to mathematics — an open letter, written such that it can be easily read by broad audience, but unmistakably addressed to the author’s beloved discipline. The reader might come away with a little more insight into content, methods and meaning of math, but not much of that; and I expect that for most people who work through this book the biggest takeaway will be some extra appreciation as to why certain people might *like* math, that inscrutable, obscure and, for many, yawn-inducing art of juggling abstract symbols. Whether you’d be interested in hearing that message is up to you to decide.

⭐This book is very similar to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: it has not much of anything to do with the subjects mentioned in the title. You will find some recipes, sort of, and you’ll find some category theory, sort of. But if you’re looking to learn anything about either, this is not the book for you.As another reviewer said, this is a love letter from the author to mathematics. But, like most love letters, if you are not the sender or the receiver, it won’t make a great deal of sense. There are many anecdotes from the life of a mathematician here, and many short vignettes of mathematics. But not enough details about either to make some kind of autobiography or some kind of informative math book. Unfortunately, since I’m neither the author nor Mathematics, I’m left with nothing but the feeling that I’ve been reading something that was not intended for me.Here’s an example of the former: “I once went to a party and decided to try an experiment: I refused to tell anyone what my job was. Telling people you’re a mathematician produces all sorts of odd responses. Some people become afraid, and extract themselves very quickly, but others immediately start trying to demonstrate how ‘intelligent’ they are. Yet others immediately start trying to belittle me….” Unfortunately, she never tells us what happened in the experiment.

⭐Children who have acquired middle-school-level algebra should read this book. It will encourage them to become better, logical thinkers. It gives intuitions and insights that would help young students of mathematics. At the very least, this book will explain to them the excitements and the motivations that propel pure mathematics. Non-mathematician adults will get from this book glimpses of what this field of study is like, on the inside.

⭐This book contains very little category theory but I still think it is about category theory and I highly recommend it to open minded readers.Eugenia Cheng provides what could be described as a way of thinking about mathematics in general that results in something better than revealing direct motivations for various parts of mathematics. To me her charming and insightful analogies, very personal and friendly style together with scarce use of formalism all work to bring about a deep change in the mind of the reader. I call it universal mathematical motivation. It is something very useful, perhaps even indispensible in the long run, when dealing with the levels of abstraction of category theory. Don’t be fooled by the apparent lack of mathematical content. This is a deep book about mathematics, it’s just so unpretentious that it can be easily misjudged. Relax and let it do it’s magic.

⭐This is an excellent book, however the content is the same book as How to Bake Pi …except for the title, publisher and it’s a paperback… I expected more fascinating insights into category theory and was totally disappointed. This is an important area of study so it deserves 4 stars, but buyer beware and be aware.

⭐Very accessible and amusing. Not as deep as I had hoped, but I assume that would require scaring most of the audience who came because it was “math is easy” level.

⭐Using cookery as an analogy, this is an entertaining take on serious maths – Amusing and very accessible. Recommended to anyone with a interest in maths.

⭐Good book just started the first chapter !more looking forward to the category theory stuff

⭐The purpose of mathematics is to make difficult things easier; the purpose of category theory is to make difficult mathematics easier.So argues research mathematician Eugenia Cheng in this excellent book. She starts off gently, with relatively simple mathematics, and oodles of real world examples, many based, unsurprisingly given the title, on cooking. These culinary examples serve both to illuminate the concepts, and to demonstrate her thesis: for example, finding out how much icing a cake needs is made easier using mathematics.The first half of the book is about mathematics in general, and what it can and can’t do. There are some lovely descriptions of the role of abstraction and generalisation, and the process of doing mathematics. By the end of this part we are confidently reading about axiomatisation. The second half then delves into the promised category theory. This covers the role of relationships and structure, along with a discussion of sameness. This is all achieved with a lightness of touch, whilst covering some quite profound ideas.By the end, Cheng has explored an broad range of concepts, illuminating a lot about the philosophical stance of mathematicians, and the relationships of mathematics to the world. And now I want some cake.

⭐Bought this but after listening to the Life scientific on radio 4 which made the whole topic seemed really interesting. So I bought the book and although I had a bit of difficulty in the first 100 pages I carried on reading it but by the time I got to about 140 and decided it was all getting too much and there were too many unexplained items for me to appreciate what she was talking about.perhaps if you are an advanced mathematician it all makes sense. I also couldn’t really see what the link was between the recipes and the maths apart from very tenuous jokey comments.disappointed because I really thought eugenia Cheng was taking maths to the people but in fact was used on is really confused me and make me feel frustrated

⭐This book has a narrow audience. I can’t see it being enjoyed by anyone who didn’t enjoy maths at school since the simple maths employed is complex enough to deter such people – nor can I see it appealing to any maths graduates since it’s too simplistic. If you did enjoy maths then perhaps, as I did, you will enjoy the journey of this book – but be left feeling unsatisfied and wanting more. The book does a good job of explaining in the broadest sense what maths is, and that school maths is the less interesting tip of a fascinating iceberg. I don’t think the examples of category theory ever get really meaty enough to satisfy the person that will want to read this book; it’s a promise that is threaded through each chapter but is never really delivered. As such I felt disappointed to find I’d reached the final chapter without a deeper grasp of category theory. One or two more chapters with worked examples that made a bolder foray into the details would have been welcome. However, I am grateful to have gained a perspective on what maths is that I hope to share with my children to inspire them with a deeper interest in the pursuit of the subject and why it is worth knowing.

⭐This is an excellent book, written in a very accessible style. I can’t say how easy it would be for someone with minimal mathematical knowledge but I enjoyed it. Eugenia communicates her enthusiasm for mathematics, and baking, in a light and entertaining style.Each chapter begins with a recipe, mostly for something cake like, which she uses to introduce a new topic, starting with the basics of how maths works and moving on, in section two, to her specialism of category theory: the mathematics of mathematics.As a bonus, being British, she knows there is more than one math.

⭐I bought this, having heard part of an interview with the author, as I have always had a negative experience with school maths. It begins simple, but lost track part way through( no obvious link to the aspects illustrated. Some of the worked examples show very faintly in this kindle book – I assume they were in a colour in the printed book. Dissapointed

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