The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why by Arthur Benjamin (PDF)

Description

The world’s greatest mental mathematical magician takes us on a spellbinding journey through the wonders of numbers (and more) “Arthur Benjamin . . . joyfully shows you how to make nature’s numbers dance.” — Bill Nye (the science guy)The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples-from ice-cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squares-this book revels in key mathematical fields including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and calculus, plus Fibonacci numbers, infinity, and, of course, mathematical magic tricks. Known throughout the world as the “mathemagician,” Arthur Benjamin mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun, attractive, and easy to understand for math fan and math-phobic alike. “A positively joyful exploration of mathematics.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review “Each [trick] is more dazzling than the last.” — Physics World

User’s Reviews

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

⭐To say my math skills are severely limited (I wasn’t able to take classes beyond first year algebra and plain geometry) would be an understatement. But I have a nephew, Elijah, who recently turned nine who knows more than I ever did and, probably, more than most adults I know. When he goes to a friend’s house and brings something to play with, it’s usually a math book. When I saw a blurb for THE MAGIC OF MATH by Arthur Benjamin, I thought he might find it challenging and interesting. I don’t know about the challenging part, but he found it very interesting. One of his teachers told me he did one of the problems on the board and, when she had trouble keeping up with him, he brought the book to school to show it to her. I recently visited him and interviewed him about what he thought of the book. These are his responses: I think it is a really interesting book. It gives theorems and then proves them. It gives a number of math tricks and it tells you how it happened and why and why you always get the same answer. It also has a thing called “asides.” They are aside from the real mathematics. They are words related to the topic and are really interesting. I’d recommend this book to a person who likes math and wants to find out why. I jumped around and looked at things that were interesting. I liked “See page…..” I’d give it four stars because it’s not the best book I’ve ever read. It is good. I would have moved around the asides. I’d be interested in reading other books by him. Of course, I would like for him to be my math teacher. Elijah also said he’d be interested in going to Harvey Mudd.

⭐So easy to read, I be saying daaaaamn, through out, and…. I looove math. I’d find myself smiling from time to time because of great discoveries and plus the author is so funny I love math, I look at math problems now and I’m like where else at first I’d feel my heart sink , so definitely get it, if it was food I’d say it’s delicious I went through the book first without trying to solve anything, just to try and get what he’s trying to have me understand. Hehe I read a math book like a novel then went the second time to work it out with him as I went along. Calculus be a regular meal now hellooo?!

⭐I’m not a trained mathematician, but I am thoroughly enjoying this book. Sometimes I do wish he had had the space to flesh out the examples with more intermediary steps, but still, I find this book useful as much as it is enjoyable. He’s made math *fun* and exciting—wish more maths profs were as excited and happy about numbers as Arthur Benjamin. I’ll say this, you will need a cursory familiarity with basic algebra and it helps to have been exposed to both statistics and calculus. There’s something for everyone at some level and I think he’s done well on delivering on that end.

⭐I love this book, and my 13yr old son loves it. He is far ahead of his class in math, and I’ve always been frustrated, trying to challenge him and meet his love for math without pushing him even further ahead and causing more boredom in class.This book is perfect. It is highly challenging, but in a way that is far different from what is taught in school. Lots of fun number tricks, like how to quickly compute the square of any 2-digit number in your head. My son has been into magic, and the author compares math to magic, which is really inviting and accessible.With that said, my son is really excited by it, but I was lost after a few chapters. It goes very deeply into mathematical ideas, and is only for those who truly enjoy this.FYI, the other great outlet we found for him was this book of 3D Sodoku puzzles:

⭐”Here are some fun facts about ellipses,” writes Arthur Benjamin.By now, you should know if you’re likely to like this book or hate it. Benjamin clearly loves numbers, math, and anything related. Most of his chapters explore one narrow topic — Pascal’s triangle, the golden ratio, or the Fibonacci series, for example — beginning with the oft-repeated basics, but quickly moving into detail and surprises. Of ellipses: If you have a pool table shaped like an ellipse and you put a ball at one foci, you can hit it in any direction and after it bounces off the wall, it will pass through the other foci. Occasionally he gets into a level of detail that I didn’t find especially interesting, but others may. Overall, I enjoyed the book very much.

⭐I don’t really know who the audience for this book is because it see-saws from giving the reader a more thorough hand-holding explanation on math concepts, which is important for people who went through the American public education system, to making leaps of logic with little explanation on others. There is a notable point in the book where it seems to abandon teaching “magic” and becomes another poorly written math book.There is a lot of breadth in these 300 pages, but the tradeoff in depth leaves readers who are looking for the “magic” confused.

⭐I’m 77 yrs old and have a lot of Drs. appointments. I bought the Kindle version and this is a perfect book to skip around in and read from different chapters setting in the waiting room. That’s not why i bought it – i bought because i like math but the book and Kindle work great for me.

⭐I like the book it’s interesting and have an integrityFinding the day of the week is too complicated,I would prefer the simple way adding the century number+2last digits of the year multiply by 1.25+the special number of the month+number of day.Divide the sum by 7 and the reminder is the day of the week when 1 is sunday,2monday etc and saturday is the 0.example:14-3-2025 : sum=6+25+25/4+4+14=6+25+6+4+14=55 ; sum/7=7+remainder 6 ; 6=friday.

⭐The Magic of math…indeed an enthralling approach to what can be seen as a magical subject. This is one of the oldest developed subjects of study we have and yet many of us tend to avoid it…when it ought to be embraced. We exist in a mathematical universe and a little undserstanding makes life more interesting than it otherwise may appear.

⭐Interesting well laid out and enjoyable

⭐An excellent book with many querky examples and stories. I was reminded of things I learned 70 years ago, some of which I had forgotten, and I learned some things I had never learned before. It’s a book I can dip into at any chapter and find items of interest, without having to follow on from previous chapters. Well worth buying.

⭐A fascinating book, full of interesting characteristics of numbers and understandable proofs for matters we take for granted.

⭐Great book and very interesting.

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