Why do even well-educated people understand so little about mathematics? And what are the costs of our innumeracy? John Allen Paulos, in his celebrated bestseller first published in 1988, argues that our inability to deal rationally with very large numbers and the probabilities associated with them results in misinformed governmental policies, confused personal decisions, and an increased susceptibility to pseudoscience of all kinds. Innumeracy lets us know what we're missing, and how we can do something about it.

Sprinkling his discussion of numbers and probabilities with quirky stories and anecdotes, Paulos ranges freely over many aspects of modern life, from contested elections to sports stats, from stock scams and newspaper psychics to diet and medical claims, sex discrimination, insurance, lotteries, and drug testing. Readers of Innumeracy will be rewarded with scores of astonishing facts, a fistful of powerful ideas, and, most important, a clearer, more quantitative way of looking at their world.

Miranda Lundy gives us a beautiful glimpse into the world of shapes and the geometry behind some of mankind's most famous creations.

Geometry is one of a group of special sciences - Number, Music and Cosmology are the others - found identically in nearly every culture on earth. In this small volume, Miranda Lundy presents a unique introduction to this most ancient and timeless of universal sciences.

Sacred Geometry demonstrates what happens to space in two dimensions - a subject last flowering in the art, science and architecture of the Renaissance and seen in the designs of Stonehenge, mosque decorations and church windows. With exquisite hand-drawn images throughout showing the relationship between shapes, the patterns of coin circles, and the definition of the golden section, it will forever alter the way in which you look at a triangle, hexagon, arch, or spiral.

Wooden Books was founded in 1999 by designer John Martineau near Hay-on-Wye. The aim was to produce a beautiful series of recycled books based on the classical philosophies, arts and sciences. Using the Beatrix Potter formula of text facing picture pages, and old-styles fonts, along with hand-drawn illustrations and 19th century engravings, the books are designed not to date. Small but stuffed with information. Eco friendly and educational. Big ideas in a tiny space. There are over 1,000,000 Wooden Books now in print worldwide and growing.

This magisterial annotated bibliography of the earliest mathematical works to be printed in the New World challenges long-held assumptions about the earliest examples of American mathematical endeavor. Bruce Stanley Burdick brings together mathematical writings from Mexico, Lima, and the English colonies of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. The book provides important information such as author, printer, place of publication, and location of original copies of each of the works discussed.

Burdick's exhaustive research has unearthed numerous examples of books not previously cataloged as mathematical. While it was thought that no mathematical writings in English were printed in the Americas before 1703, Burdick gives scholars one of their first chances to discover Jacob Taylor's 1697 Tenebrae, a treatise on solving triangles and other figures using basic trigonometry. He also goes beyond the English language to discuss works in Spanish and Latin, such as Alonso de la Vera Cruz's 1554 logic text, the Recognitio Summularum; a book on astrology by Enrico Mart nez; books on the nature of comets by Carlos de Sig enza y G ngora and Eusebio Francisco Kino; and a 1676 almanac by Feliciana Ruiz, the first woman to produce a mathematical work in the Americas.

Those fascinated by mathematics, its history, and its culture will note with interest that many of these works, including all of the earliest ones, are from Mexico, not from what is now the United States. As such, the book will challenge us to rethink the history of mathematics on the American continents.

Our society is churning out more numbers than ever before, whether in the form of spreadsheets, brokerage statements, survey results, or just the numbers on the sports pages. Unfortunately, people's ability to understand and analyze numbers isn't keeping pace with today's whizzing data streams. And the benefits of living in the Information Age are available only to those who can process the information in front of them.

Ideal for readers who need extra practice and skill reinforcement for exams. Reviews and hones skills for college and graduate school admissions exams. Also perfect for adult test-takers who need to review all the most-tested basic math concepts to score well on vocational and certification exams.

Can you multiply 362 x .5 quickly in your head? Could you readily calculate the square of 41? How much is 635 divided by 21/2? Can 727,648 be evenly divided by 8?
If any of these questions took you more than a few seconds to solve, you need this book. Short-Cut Math is a concise, remarkably clear compendium of about 150 math short-cuts -- timesaving tricks that provide faster, easier ways to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
By using the simple foolproof methods in this volume, you can double or triple your calculation speed -- even if you always hated math in school. Here's a sampling of the amazingly effective techniques you will learn in minutes: Adding by 10 Groups; No-Carry Addition; Subtraction Without Borrowing; Multiplying by Aliquot Parts; Test for Divisibility by Odd and Even Numbers; Simplifying Dividends and Divisors; Fastest Way to Add or Subtract Any Pair of Fractions; Multiplying and Dividing with Mixed Numbers, and more.
The short-cuts in this book require no special math ability. If you can do ordinary arithmetic, you will have no trouble with these methods. There are no complicated formulas or unfamiliar jargon -- no long drills or exercises. For each problem, the author provides an explanation of the method and a step-by-step solution. Then the short-cut is applied, with a proof and an explanation of why it works.
Students, teachers, businesspeople, accountants, bank tellers, check-out clerks -- anyone who uses numbers and wishes to increase his or her speed and arithmetical agility, can benefit from the clear, easy-to-follow techniques given here.

The history of pi, says the author, though a small part of the history of mathematics, is nevertheless a mirror of the history of man. Petr Beckmann holds up this mirror, giving the background of the times when pi made progress -- and also when it did not, because science was being stifled by militarism or religious fanaticism.

Known for many years as Barron's Easy Way Series, the new editions of these popular self-teaching titles are now Barron's E-Z Series. Brand-new cover designs reflect all new page layouts, which feature extensive two-color treatment, a fresh, modern typeface, and more graphic material than ever-- charts, graphs, diagrams, instructive line illustrations, and where appropriate, amusing cartoons. Meanwhile, the quality of the books' contents remains at least as high as ever. Barron's E-Z books are self-help manuals focused to improve students' grades in a wide variety of academic and practical subjects. For most subjects, the level of difficulty ranges between high school and college-101 standards. Although primarily designed as self-teaching manuals, these books are also preferred by many teachers as classroom supplements--and for some courses, as main textbooks. E-Z books review their subjects in detail, and feature both short quizzes and longer tests with answers to help students gauge their learning progress. Subject heads and key phrases are set in a second color as an easy reference aid.

Here's the perfect self-teaching guide to help anyone master differential equations--a common stumbling block for students looking to progress to advanced topics in both science and math. Covers First Order Equations, Second Order Equations and Higher, Properties, Solutions, Series Solutions, Fourier Series and Orthogonal Systems, Partial Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Numerical Techniques, and more.