Innumeracy

Author : John Allen Paulos
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1429934387
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Innumeracy written by John Allen Paulos and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. 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.

Author : Ellen Peters
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190861096
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Innumeracy in the Wild written by Ellen Peters and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Innumeracy in the Wild explains how numeric ability supports the quality of the decisions we make and, ultimately, the life outcomes we experience. It dissects three ways that people can be good or bad with numbers and how each of these numeric competencies matter to decision making. Furthermore, it delves into how we can use this knowledge to improve decision making. Understanding the roles of numeric ability (often called numeracy) is particularly important today due to widespread innumeracy. In addition, policies in health and financial domains have shifted towards giving consumers and patients more information (which is often numeric). These changes are intended to empower individuals to take charge of their own welfare. The evidence is clear, however, that not everybody is prepared to use this information effectively and that those who are less numerate tend to make worse decisions unless provided adequate support. The book discusses four main points: the complex and systematic psychological mechanisms that underlie objective numeracy's effects in judgment and decision making; the importance of numeracy to experiencing positive life outcomes especially in health and finances; the decision-making support provided by two additional ways of knowing and using numbers; and the methods that exploit existing evidence and enable those who are less comfortable with numbers to use them more effectively and make better choices in our complex, often numeric world"--

Author : John Allen Paulos
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 030783333X
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beyond Numeracy written by John Allen Paulos and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-05-29 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the national bestseller Innumeracy, a delightful exploration and explanation of mathematical concepts from algebra to zero in easily accessible alphabetical entries. "Paulos . . . does for mathematics what The Joy of Sex did for the boudoir. . . ."--Washington Post Book World. First time in paperback.

Author : John Allen Paulos
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0465050670
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper written by John Allen Paulos and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Allen Paulos is a master at shedding mathematical lights on our everyday world:What exactly did Lani Guinier say about quotas?What is the probability of identifying a murderer through DNA testing?Which are the real risks to our health and which the phony ones?Employing the same fun-filled, user-friendly, and quirkily insightful approach that put Innumeracy on best-seller lists, Paulos now leads us through the pages of the daily newspaper, revealing the hidden mathematical angles of countless articles. From the Senate, the SATs, and sex to crime, celebrities, and cults, Paulos takes stories that may not seem to involve mathematics at all and demonstrates how mathematical naïtéan put readers at a distinct disadvantage.Whether he's using chaos theory to puncture economic and environmental predictions, applying logic and self-reference to clarify the hazards of spin doctoring and news compression, or employing arithmetic and common sense to give us a novel perspective on greed and relationships, Paulos never fails to entertain and enlighten.Even if you hated math in school, you'll love the numerical vignettes in this book.

Author : John Allen Paulos
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465009700
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market written by John Allen Paulos and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2007-10-11 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can a renowned mathematician successfully outwit the stock market? Not when his biggest investment is WorldCom. In A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market , best-selling author John Allen Paulos employs his trademark stories, vignettes, paradoxes, and puzzles to address every thinking reader's curiosity about the market -- Is it efficient? Is it random? Is there anything to technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and other supposedly time-tested methods of picking stocks? How can one quantify risk? What are the most common scams? Are there any approaches to investing that truly outperform the major indexes? But Paulos's tour through the irrational exuberance of market mathematics doesn't end there. An unrequited (and financially disastrous) love affair with WorldCom leads Paulos to question some cherished ideas of personal finance. He explains why "data mining" is a self-fulfilling belief, why "momentum investing" is nothing more than herd behavior with a lot of mathematical jargon added, why the ever-popular Elliot Wave Theory cannot be correct, and why you should take Warren Buffet's "fundamental analysis" with a grain of salt. Like Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street , this clever and illuminating book is for anyone, investor or not, who follows the markets -- or knows someone who does.

Author : John Allen Paulos
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780809059188
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Irreligion written by John Allen Paulos and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are there any logical reasons to believe in God? Mathematician and bestselling author Paulos thinks not. In "Irreligion" he presents the case for his own worldview, organizing his book into 12 chapters that refute the 12 arguments most often put forward for believing in Gods existence.

Author : John Allen Paulos
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226650235
Total Pages : 126 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mathematics and Humor written by John Allen Paulos and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-08-04 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Allen Paulos cleverly scrutinizes the mathematical structures of jokes, puns, paradoxes, spoonerisms, riddles, and other forms of humor, drawing examples from such sources as Rabelais, Shakespeare, James Beattie, René Thom, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Koestler, W. C. Fields, and Woody Allen. "Jokes, paradoxes, riddles, and the art of non-sequitur are revealed with great perception and insight in this illuminating account of the relationship between humor and mathematics."—Joseph Williams, New York Times "'Leave your mind alone,' said a Thurber cartoon, and a really complete and convincing analysis of what humour is might spoil all jokes forever. This book avoids that danger. What it does. . .is describe broadly several kinds of mathematical theory and apply them to throw sidelights on how many kinds of jokes work."—New Scientist "Many scholars nowadays write seriously about the ludicrous. Some merely manage to be dull. A few—like Paulos—are brilliant in an odd endeavor."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

Author : Edward MacNeal
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0140234861
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mathsemantics written by Edward MacNeal and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1995-03-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a whole new way of looking at math that liberates math phobes from their anxiety, enables business people to do their jobs more effectively, challenges and informs math buffs, and provides educators with the tools to teach math easily and effectively. How can it do all that? By reuniting numbers and meaning, two subjects that should never have been separated in the first place. Entertaining, anecdotal, and immensely practical, this extraordinary book offers a revolutionary way of looking at math as a language, something that we've all heard before but which has never made sense until now. Mathsemantics is that rare book that will change the way you look at the world—and provide the most sensible and inspiring answer yet to the problem of American innumeracy. "Eye opening . . . a good antidote to innumeracy."—Library Journal

Author : David Stipp
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465093787
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Most Elegant Equation written by David Stipp and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning science writer introduces us to mathematics using the extraordinary equation that unites five of mathematics' most important numbers Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry." This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections. It ties together everything from basic arithmetic to compound interest, the circumference of a circle, trigonometry, calculus, and even infinity. In David Stipp's hands, Euler's identity formula becomes a contemplative stroll through the glories of mathematics. The result is an ode to this magical field.

Author : Joel Best
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520953517
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Damned Lies and Statistics written by Joel Best and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, by popular demand, is the updated edition to Joel Best's classic guide to understanding how numbers can confuse us. In his new afterword, Best uses examples from recent policy debates to reflect on the challenges to improving statistical literacy. Since its publication ten years ago, Damned Lies and Statistics has emerged as the go-to handbook for spotting bad statistics and learning to think critically about these influential numbers.