A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

Resumen del libro

"A fun, spunky, wise little book that would be helpful to both the consumers of the news and its purveyors." -Washington Post


In this lively volume, mathematician John Allen Paulos employs his singular wit to guide us through an unlikely mathematical jungle-the pages of the daily newspaper. From the Senate and sex to celebrities and cults, Paulos takes stories that may not seem to involve math at all and demonstrates how mathematical naïveté can put readers at a distinct disadvantage. Whether he's using chaos theory to puncture economic and environmental predictions, applying logic to clarify the hazards of spin doctoring and news compression, or employing arithmetic and common sense to give us a novel perspective on greed and relationships, Paulos never fails to entertain and enlighten.

Biografía del autor

John Allen Paulos (Denver, 1945) es doctor en matemáticas por la Universidad de Wisconsin, profesor en las universidades de Temple y Columbia y colaborador habitual en medios de la talla de The Guardian, New York Times, Wall Street Journal y Forbes. Es autor de títulos como Más allá de los números, Un matemático lee el periódico, Un matemático invierte en la Bolsa, Elogio de la irreligión, y La vida es matemática.