The Simpsons And Their Mathematical Secretsīased on interviews with the writers of The Simpsons and accompanied by images from the show, facsimiles of scripts, paintings and drawings and other imagery, this fascinating book reveals the meaningful mathematical concepts behind the most successful show in TV history. (extract from Simon Singh’s review, Sunday Telegraph, 14 March 1998) 2. Cole’s delightful book is an attempt to explain what numbers mean, and how they are used, abused and misunderstood. He was trying to make a point about the general public’s poor understanding of statistics, and it is quite likely that many people thought he was being quite serious and followed his advice until the New Year, when presumably a new quota would begin.Ī century later we are increasingly bombarded by statistics, probabilities and averages, and yet our understanding of these numbers is still weak. An elegant study of the way maths can provide solutions to everyday problems.Ĭharles Dickens once proclaimed that he was boycotting the train service for the rest of December “on the grounds that the average annual quota of railroad accidents in Britain had not been filled and therefore further disasters were obviously imminent”.ĭickens was not just literate but numerate as well, and he was well aware of the absurdity of his statement. Something accessible for people who know no maths and something fun for the math literate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |