[PDF] Download The Math of Life and Death: 7 Mathematical Principles That Shape Our Lives by Kit Yates | Free EBOOK PDF English

Book Details Title: The Math of Life and Death: 7 Mathematical Principles That Shape Our Lives Author: Kit Yates Number of pages: Publisher: Scribner (January 7, 2020) Language: English ISBN: 1982111879 Rating: 4     7 reviews

Book Description Review “A dizzying, dazzling debut.” —Nature “A welcome addition to the math-for-people-who-hate-math genre…All but the stubbornly innumerate will enjoy this amusing mathematical miscellany.” —Kirkus Reviews “Ponzi schemes, nuclear fission, and viral marketing are just a few of the topics covered in this savvy book from first-time author Yates…Any inquisitive and open-minded reader can enjoy this valuable primer on the use and abuse of numbers in the everyday world.” —Publishers Weekly “Kit Yates is a brilliant explainer and storyteller. Perhaps most charming of all, his stories are a bit like Sherlock Holmes tales: mysteries whose solutions seem surprising and then elementary, once the clever reasoning behind them is revealed. I loved this book and learned something on every page.” —Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics, Cornell University, and author of Infinite Powers and The Joy of X “Kit Yates shows how our private and social lives are suffused by mathematics. Ignorance may bring tragedy or farce. This is an exquisitely interesting book. It’s a deeply serious one too and, for those like me who have little math, it’s delightfully readable.” —Ian McEwan, author of Atonement “Kit Yates is a natural storyteller. Through fascinating stories and examples, he shows how math is the beating heart of so much of modern life. An exciting new voice in the world of science communication.” —Marcus du Sautoy, author of The Music of the Primes “Used wisely, mathematics can save your life. Used unwisely, it can ruin it. A lucid and enthralling account of why math matters in everyone’s life. A real eye-opener.” —Ian Stewart, author of In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World“This crisp, clear and compelling book is about the liminal spaces between expertise in mathematics and hardline decision-making, taking you on a powerful journey about truth and belief and what math actually is, out in the wild.” —Times Education Supplement (UK)“Many people assume that the closest math gets to their daily lives is when it’s time to calculate the tip at a restaurant or the discount being offered at a store. But mathematician Yates shows that everyone—even the most math-phobic among us—interacts with math much more often and deeply than we realize.” —Scientific American Read more About the Author Kit Yates is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and codirector of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath. He completed his PhD in mathematics at the University of Oxford in 2011. His research demonstrates that mathematics can be used to describe all sorts of real-world phenomena: from embryo formation to locust swarming and from sleeping sickness to egg-shell patterning. His research into mathematical biology has been covered by the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail (London), RTE, Scientific American, and Reuters amongst others. Alongside his academic position, Kit is also an author and science communicator. The Math of Life and Death is his first book. Read more Customers Review: In this book about how math shapes our lives, British math professor Yates doesn’t take us into the algebra, geometry, and even trigonometry that we all use daily – whether we realize it or not. Instead, he takes an approach similar to the now decade old US television show Numb3rs, starring David Krumholtz and Rob Morrow, wherein he shows applications of higher level mathematics in fields such as epidemiology, medicine, law, journalism, elections, and several others. Yates cites real world examples including unjust convictions and Ebola outbreaks and many others to show how math was used incorrectly and what the math actually showed in that situation, to help the reader begin to get an overall sense of math without getting bogged down in the technical calculations. Truly an excellent book for even the more arithmophobic among us, as it shows the numbers all around us and explains how we can have a better sense of them.Disclaimers: 1) I LOVED Numb3rs back in the day and would still be watching it if it were still on the air. 2) I have a computer science degree and very nearly got secondary mathematics education and mathematics bachelors degrees at the same time as my CS one – so obviously I’m a bit more attuned to math than others. I work with Math for a living, so I already knew most of the actual math in this book. The personal stories were very nice, but I think the book fell short for someone interested in learning some of the nuts and bolts.This would be an excellent book for someone who is educated and not afraid of math. A person like that would not be daunted by the content, and will find the stories very interesting. Includes some novel takes on concepts and adds interesting historical perspectives on some (bubonic plaque). The virology/epidemiology sections were eerily prescient in the midst of the n-CoV outbreak! Some graphic illustrations are visually weak. Repetitive on certain viewpoints especially regarding the utility of math, misuse of mathematical calculations. Enjoyed the story telling aspect which kept the read engaging. I thought it was good until I got to a section where the author has an obvious bias. In that section he did not follow his own guidance. Disappointing. Especially interesting in light of Coronavirus. A gift for my son in law who is a retired math and computer engineering professor. He and my daughter both love it! Kit Yates uses true life examples and simple metaphors to explore some of the mathematics of our everyday lives. His chapter on the use and misuse of statistics should be required reading for every high school student. (I’m a math teacher, and I intend to prescribe it for my students!)While the study of exponential curves may not be terribly exciting for most people, they are vital to understanding todays news headlines. Kudos to Yates for making these and other connections.I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.