Weird Math: A Teenage Genius and His Teacher Reveal the Strange Connections Between Math and Everyday Life by David Darling (PDF)

Description

A teenage genius and his teacher take readers on a wild ride to the extremes of mathematics Everyone has stared at the crumpled page of a math assignment and wondered, where on Earth will I ever use this? It turns out, Earth is precisely the place. As teen math prodigy Agnijo Banerjee and his teacher David Darling reveal, complex math surrounds us. If we think long enough about the universe, we’re left not with material stuff, but a ghostly and beautiful set of equations. Packed with puzzles and paradoxes, mind-bending concepts, and surprising solutions, Weird Math leads us from a lyrical exploration of mathematics in our universe to profound questions about God, chance, and infinity. A magical introduction to the mysteries of math, it will entrance beginners and seasoned mathematicians alike.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐I enjoyed reading this book. It is clear and interesting, reviewing various fields of mathematics with almost no equations. There are few dubious ideas, for example the book presents an alleged solution to Hempel corroboration paradox, but this solution does not meet well-known criticism.

⭐David does a fantastic job. I’m not done with the book and will update more once I am. But these two have done something many can’t: Make math interesting and cool. I just hope the general public picks up on it and reads it as well. Math is for everyone. Just everyone hasn’t realized it.

⭐Good

⭐This is a great book, but almost the opposite of what the subtitle promises. I expected to find some interesting applied mathematics to everyday experience. There is none of that, only a few unconvincing lists of pure mathematical results that were later discovered to be useful (quantum and relativistic physics, plus cryptography, feature prominently as always; I call these unconvincing because if you look closely you find the connections between the pure math and the applications are weaker both historically and intellectually than they appear; and in any case this book does not examine them).This book does something much more interesting and original. It discusses pure mathematical results in terms that make the questions reasonable and the answers comprehensible, without the need for either formal mathematical training or painstaking logic. There is also some history and other human interest thrown in.Most mathematics education tends to concentrate on applied mathematics (such as finding the maximum of a quadratic function) or rote versions of pure mathematics (for example, elementary geometric proofs). I personally see little value in either of these. They may ignite a real interest in math for students with high math ability, and they do provide some useful tools that some other students will apply in science or engineering fields, but they leave most students hating math, and little use for what they’ve learned. Moreover those students who do benefit from the classes will likely have to relearn things properly later.This book seems designed to ignite an interest in mathematics for students without high math ability, or perhaps with high math ability they never realized because they got so bored in class. It naturally introduces important ideas in pure mathematics in ways anyone can appreciate, and explains some of the answers; answers that would require high talent and years of study to derive, but can be explained in general to anyone. It will also interest no-nonsense applied mathematicians in suggesting how some fields of higher mathematics can make complicated or impossible applied problems simple.The book is easy enough to read an understand for an intelligent middle-school student, but will also teach some serious mathematics to nearly all adults who are not professional mathematicians. It’s well-written enough to be read for pleasure even without thinking deeply about the math, but also precise enough to get a reader started on important pure mathematics questions that happen to appeal to her (I emphasize “started,” the book does not teach the mathematics necessary to answer these questions, only to formulate them and to understand what an answer would consist of; it’s not a map, it’s just a piece of paper with your location and your goal marked, you’ll have to do a lot of study or thinking–probably both–to begin to trace out paths).I recommend this book to anyone who likes recreational mathematics, but there are lots of equally good books for those people. I particularly recommend this book to smart people, children or adults, who don’t think they like pure mathematics, but don’t know much about it. Some will read this book and confirm their belief that they have no interest in the field, but I think many (most?) will at least understand what pure mathematics is and why it interests other people; and perhaps discover a talent or love for the field in themselves.

⭐On time and as described.

⭐This book give a chance to a professor to be able to respond at the most important question the students have: “will I use it in my future job”.

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