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Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors Paperback – January 1, 1900

by Matt Parker (Author)

4.6 4,240 ratings

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An international bestseller

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?"

"Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations--that also gives you permission to feel a little better about some of your own mistakes." --Ryan North, author of How to Invent Everything

Our whole world is built on math, from the code running a website to the equations enabling the design of skyscrapers and bridges. Most of the time this math works quietly behind the scenes . . . until it doesn't. All sorts of seemingly innocuous mathematical mistakes can have significant consequences.

Math is easy to ignore until a misplaced decimal point upends the stock market, a unit conversion error causes a plane to crash, or someone divides by zero and stalls a battleship in the middle of the ocean.

Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

Reading age

5 years and up
Print length

314 pages
Language

English
Dimensions

6.02 x 0.94 x 9.21 inches
Publisher

ALLEN LANE
Publication date

January 1, 1900
ISBN-10

0241360196
ISBN-13

978-0241360194
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ ALLEN LANE (January 1, 1900)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 314 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241360196
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241360194
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 5 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 0.94 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,293,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 4,240 ratings

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Whitekn3

I bought it for fun. It proved to be valuable!

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

An excellent book about the problems, some real disasters, that can occur when people make "math mistakes", sometimes on purpose.

I had heard several of the stories before, and was familiar with some of the problems. But the section on spotting "fake data" was new to me. Shortly after finishing the book I ran across several totally unrelated about news stories about researchers who had faked data. Including a shocking article by a Medical doctor who explained why he would not take a recommended article because the "raw data" that is essential to determining the reliability of the studies on it's side effects was not available. I could follow his reasoning because of what I learned in the Humble PI book. Since then I've had several other occasions where the information in the book proved valuable.

Our world is complex, with lots of room for errors, and fraudsters. I think this book is more than just "interesting". I found it a tool to help me sort through all the "data" that is thrown around nothing but hot air to back it up.

Helpful

Stephen Scott

Wonderfully delightful. I also recommend the audiobook, read by the author!

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

Matt Parker is a delight, and an inspiration when it comes to making math(s) more fascinating, amusing, and just good ol' fun. I had only heard of a couple stories related here. While a fair amount of attention has been given to some math(s) errors that were catastrophic and resulted in loss of life, etc., Matt did well to keep this book on the lighter, less morbid side.
I absolutely love much of his YouTube presence and in-person performances, and am glad to buy both the hard cover and the audio book. Wonderfully delightful.
The print version is also nice in that reading the numbers with your eyes is far quicker than to listen to someone read off a string of numbers lol

2 people found this helpful

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Nikolay Yakimov

A great book about how math we rely on can go wrong

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book is a rather comprehensive enumeration of examples where bad (or just not good enough) math can lead to surprising, or even disastrous results. It is written in an accessible language, so anyone can in theory find value in reading it. Admittedly, it has less to offer to hardcore math nerds who are already aware of many of the examples presented, but that deficiency is somewhat compensated for by the author's wit. One relatively major nitpick I have is that for a book subtitled "comedy of math errors", there is a depressing number of stories that end with "and then people died". People dying is not funny, and the book doesn't try to present it as such, but for someone looking for a cheap chuckle that may be a turn-off. I guess in this case we have to assume the author used "comedy" in a Greco-Roman sense, as how Dante's Inferno is a "comedy". Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of chuckle-worthy content here, but there's quite a bit of frankly depressing stuff too.

26 people found this helpful

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Wibby

Funny, informative.

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2023

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A really enjoyable book with some very interesting and surprising events.

One person found this helpful

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Kohlstedt

Fantastic!

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2023

Verified Purchase

It’s a collection of shorts, many only a few pages, about math errors in history. I can hear Matt’s voice in my head as I read and it’s fantastic! It’s a great gift for anyone regardless of whether you follow Stand-Up Maths on YouTube or not.

One person found this helpful

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hayden conmee

Fun and informative

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book merged a healthy dose of mathematics and humour which results in a very readable lesson in mathematics and several valuable case studies. A good book for those who use mathematics professionally, for fun or both!

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

As a person concerned about innumeracy in the United States I looked forward to a good read. However the author focuses mostly on rounding errors and errors of truncation rather than failure of basic math skills.

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Phil Stewartq

An entertaining romp through the history of mathematical disasters

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

This was a highly entertaining and engaging read. It's accessible to non-mathematicians but still delves quite deeply into the mathematics behind many everyday activities - be it walking across a bridge, flying in an airliner or watching a game show. The author has a wry sense of humour very much in the vein of English medical doctor and author Ben Goldacre (who is actually referenced in the section about the way pharmaceutical companies game the system with research results). I can't recommend this book enough - it's great read.

3 people found this helpful

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