X and the City: Modeling Aspects of Urban Life

by John A. Adam

What mathematical modeling uncovers about life in the city

X and the City , a book of diverse and accessible math-based topics, uses basic modeling to explore a wide range of entertaining questions about urban life. How do you estimate the number of dental or doctor's offices, gas stations, restaurants, or movie theaters in a city of a given size? How can mathematics be used to maximize traffic flow through tunnels? Can you predict whether a traffic light will stay green long enough for you to cross the intersection? And what is the likelihood that your city will be hit by an asteroid?

Every math problem and equation in this book tells a story and examples are explained throughout in an informal and witty style. The level of mathematics ranges from precalculus through calculus to some differential equations, and any reader with knowledge of elementary calculus will be able to follow the materials with ease. There are also some more challenging problems sprinkled in for the more advanced reader.

Filled with interesting and unusual observations about how cities work, X and the City shows how mathematics undergirds and plays an important part in the metropolitan landscape.

Genres: Mathematics, Nonfiction, Science

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2012

Reviews

[Harlan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not what it claims to be. The book is not about urban life and how to mathematically model and understand cities. It's not at all a distillation of sociological, urban planning, systems engineering, or economic research into how cities work. It's a set of disjointed mathematical estimation problems, demonstrating how to use mathematical tools to do back-of-the-envelope estimations about all sorts of things. The urban setting is only a gimmick, and is not taken seriously by the author at all.

Additionally, the estimation problems chosen are worked through only cursorily. If you know and understand the math in question, the answers are pretty easy. If the author chooses a mathematical technique you're not familiar with, he's not going to explain it.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great subject and a lot of examples how mathematics fits into so many aspects of life. Perhaps the imposed limits on the length of this book forced the author to apply numerous shortcuts when discussing mathematics of each issue, which in turn resulted in a great subject almost impossible to follow in its details, when studying the book only.

If I knew the presented solutions I wouldn't need the book, did I? Therefore, using myself as an example, the opportunity to popularise so popular applications got missed. Also, when discussing a subject the author presents a formulae without explaining all the variables used there, it doesn't help comprehending the discussed topic. Perhaps with fewer examples but more careful explanation would be of much greater benefit to everyone.

[Rudolf Nyitray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many concepts and instances are too irrelevant to urban or everyday life