Book Description Review Praise for Matt Parker and Humble Pi:“Parker is consistently very funny . . . . highly entertaining.” —The Guardian“Parker has a sly wit. . . . A clever, amusing book about some of life’s more serious problems; highly recommended.” —Library Journal “A fascinating and deeply surprising journey into the hilarious and sometimes tragic realm of mathematical error. Brilliant.” —Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist and Messy “[Matt Parker] shows off math at its most playful and multifarious.” —Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong “Matt Parker is some sort of unholy fusion of prankster, wizard, and brilliant nerd—math is rarely this clever, funny, and ever so slightly naughty.”—Adam Rutherford, author of Creation “A pleasant exploration of our deeply held incompetence at mathematics. . . . Fun reading for nonmathematicians.” —Kirkus Reviews “Numbers to die for. Four stars.” —Mail on Sunday “Matt Parker has pulled off something wonderful . . . his stories are superb.” —The Daily Mail Read more About the Author Matt Parker is the author of Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension as well as a stand-up comedian and YouTuber with over 100 million views. He writes about math for The Guardian, hosts the Science Channel’s Outrageous Acts of Science, and appears regularly on various BBC shows including More or Less, The Infinite Monkey Cage, and QI. Matt performs his math stand-up routines in front of audiences of thousands and is the first person to use an overhead projector at the Hammersmith Apollo since Pink Floyd. Read more Customers Review: Great addition to library in my math classroom. Best thing is the hard cover does not cause my kindle to crash. Well…guess it would if I hit it hard enough. In reality it is a great book. Was upset that my son ripped the slip cover before I was able to get home, but the embossed pi spiral On the cover actually looks better than the slip cover.
This version crashes the kindle reader running on Android.This happens whenever you tap on the center of the page to get to the menu options.I suspect the non standard page numbering scheme may be the culprate here but I’m not sure.
I bought this book because I really like Matt Parker. He is a brilliant presenter and a great writer. HOWEVER, I have been disappointed to realize that every single story in this book is also presented, nearly verbatim, on his YouTube channel, Standupmaths. If I had known I would be getting the same content as his FREE videos, I would not have purchased this book. It’s still well-written, but I feel cheated, and I’m sorry to say that I’ve lost a great deal of respect for one of my favorite YouTubers.
This was fun, and a bit scary since most of the mistakes were due to really simple, mostly arithmetic mistakes. Spreadsheet errors aren’t exactly differential equations errors. That being said the book pointed out how much risk is embedded in code , spreadsheets, specs etc. it also points out how weak people’s grip on anything mathematical is. I bought the kindle version and the audible version. I didn’t need both. The audible edition did everything I wanted except show the graphics in the book. I liked the graphics, but they weren’t mandatory. Also, the reader’s accent was distracting since I’m not a Brit
This book is the perfect read for anyone who has ever wondered how math impacts their lives and who actually wants to understand the explanation. The Matt Parker uses memorable events to explain complex issues in an easy to understand and entertaining way. I loved the book and found myself wishing there were more of it. Let your nerd flag fly and give it a read!
I bought this because I enjoy Matt Parker’s maths videos on YouTube. It is only because I like these videos that this climbed its way to a two star review. I found the book very dry and unenthusiastic. Read like an 8th grade textbook. Unfortunate.
Matt Parker is clever and witty at ever level. This book is like the transcript of his best YouTube videos plus several more stories that are not (yet?) videos. Lots of life lessons to be learned from this book, it is a great teaching tool for children & youth.
Loved Matt’s first book ”…Fourth Dimension” and this one is even better, and orders of magnitude more accessible for untrained maths dabblers such as myself. I’m on my second read through (having purchases the UK version in 2019) and can say that this is a book I will return to over the years for multiple re-reads. Highly recommended! |
78 reviews