|
|
They know something you don't know. They work inside investment banks, betting companies and social media giants. What are the secrets held by mathematicians and what can everyone else learn from them? Their advantage can be reduced to a small number of equations. Ten of them. An...d, surprisingly, it isn't their technical details that give them an edge. It is the way these equations allow them to view problems from a different angle -- a way of seeing the world that anyone can learn. In this eye-opening book, mathematician David Sumpter reveals the formulas that make the modern world go round, and how we can use them to better our chances of success, solidify friendships and live healthier lives, to guard against failure and financial ruin, and to see through scaremongering. Writing with clarity and wit, Sumpter explains how the same equations that are integral to Facebook can help you to work out how long to persist with a difficult task or how many episodes of a new Netflix series to watch before giving up. Empowering and enlightening, The Ten Equations shows how maths can truly change our way of understanding the world.
Read more
|
|
|
The first is that the most common explanation for time - entropy - is flawed: firstly, because we have no way of explaining how the concentration of energy that would allow the Big Bang to take place came about, and secondly because none of our understanding of entropy takes into... account the fact that the universe is infinitely expanding.
Read more
|
|
|
A practical guide by two world experts to solving encrypted messages from today and the past, of which there are tens of thousands, many of which remain unsolved. The guide is complemented by success stories and details of unsolved encryption mysteries.
|
|
|
Can a sense of belonging increase life satisfaction? Why do we sometimes feel lonely? How can we sustain lasting human connections? The Psychology of Belonging explores why feeling like we belong is so important throughout our lives, from childhood to old age, irrespective of cul...ture, race, or geography. With its virtues and shortcomings, belonging to groups such as families, social groups, schools, workplaces, and communities, is fundamental to our identity and wellbeing, even in a time where technology has changed the way we connect with each other. In a world where loneliness and social isolation is on the rise, The Psychology of Belonging shows how meaningful connections can build a sense of belonging for all of us.
Read more
|
|
|
|
By Smil, Vaclav
|
- RRP: $40.00
- $30.00
- Save $10.00
- In Stock At Publisher
|
'There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil' Bill Gates Is flying dangerous? How much do the world's cows weigh? And what makes people happy? From earth's nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energize them, to the transportation an...d inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking. Packed with 'well-I-never-knew-that' information and with fascinating and unusual examples throughout, we see how it is too soon to judge shale gas, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). There's a wonderful mix of science, history and wit, all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics. Should you trust unemployment figures? Is China's rise unstoppable? And what's worse for the environment: your car or mobile phone? Unclouded by pessimism or optimism and unafraid of big questions, Smil explains why calls for the Anthropocene era may be premature but why the Paris Agreement does not go far enough. These issues are not straightforward and progress takes longer than you think, but with Smil as our authoritative and entertaining guide we get a healthy shot of realism. Urgent and essential, Numbers Don't Lie is a powerful rallying cry for interrogating what you take to be true in these significant times. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey? 'He is rigorously numeric, using data to illuminate every topic he writes about. The word polymath was invented to describe people like him' Bill Gates 'Important' Mark Zuckerberg, on Energy 'One of the world's foremost thinkers on development history and a master of statistical analysis . . . The nerd's nerd' Guardian 'There is perhaps no other academic who paint
Read more
|
|
|
|
By O'Neil, Cathy
|
- RRP: $30.00
- $24.28
- Save $5.72
- Internationally sourced
|
New York Times Bestseller 'Fascinating and deeply disturbing' - Yuval Noah Harari, Guardian Books of the Year 'A manual for the 21st-century citizen...accessible, refreshingly critical, relevant and urgent' - Federica Cocco, Financial Times A former Wall Street quant sounds an al...arm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life - and threaten to rip apart our social fabric We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for insurance - are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. And yet, as Cathy O'Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and incontestable, even when they're wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination. Tracing the arc of a person's life, O'Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These weapons of math destruction score teachers and students, sort CVs, grant or deny loans, evaluate workers, target voters, and monitor our health. O'Neil calls on modellers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it's up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.
Read more
|
|
|
Using his trademark narrative skills, Tim Harford takes us deep into the world of statistics and shows how important and powerful they can be
|
|
|
|
By Sumpter, David
|
- RRP: $40.00
- $30.00
- Save $10.00
- Temporarily out of stock
|
They know something you don't know. They work inside investment banks, betting companies and social media giants. What are the secrets held by mathematicians and what can everyone else learn from them? Their advantage can be reduced to a small number of equations. Ten of them. An...d, surprisingly, it isn't their technical details that give them an edge. It is the way these equations allow them to view problems from a different angle -- a way of seeing the world that anyone can learn. In this eye-opening book, mathematician David Sumpter reveals the formulas that make the modern world go round, and how we can use them to better our chances of success, solidify friendships and live healthier lives, to guard against failure and financial ruin, and to see through scaremongering. Writing with clarity and wit, Sumpter explains how the same equations that are integral to Facebook can help you to work out how long to persist with a difficult task or how many episodes of a new Netflix series to watch before giving up. Empowering and enlightening, The Ten Equations shows how maths can truly change our way of understanding the world.
Read more
|
|
|
From the author of 'The Music of the Primes' and 'Finding Moonshine' comes a short, lively book on five mathematical problems that just refuse be solved -- and on how many everyday problems can be solved by maths.
|
|
|
This new book from the author of 'The Music of the Primes' combines a personal insight into the mind of a working mathematician with the story of one of the biggest adventures in mathematics: the search for symmetry.
|
