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Math Bytes: Google Bombs, Chocolate-Covered Pi, and Other Cool Bits in Computing
An inviting collection of fun, hands-on applications in mathematics and computing
This book provides a fun, hands-on approach to learning how mathematics and computing relate to the world around us and help us to better understand it. How can reposting on Twitter kill a movie's opening weekend? How can you use mathematics to find your celebrity look-alike? What is Homer Simpson’s method for disproving Fermat’s Last Theorem? Each topic in this refreshingly inviting book illustrates a famous mathematical algorithm or result--such as Google’s PageRank and the traveling salesman problem--and the applications grow more challenging as you progress through the chapters. But don’t worry, helpful solutions are provided each step of the way.
Math Bytes shows you how to do calculus using a bag of chocolate chips, and how to prove the Euler characteristic simply by doodling. Generously illustrated in color throughout, this lively and entertaining book also explains how to create fractal landscapes with a roll of the dice, pick a competitive bracket for March Madness, decipher the math that makes it possible to resize a computer font or launch an Angry Bird--and much, much more. All of the applications are presented in an accessible and engaging way, enabling beginners and advanced readers alike to learn and explore at their own pace--a bit and a byte at a time.
This book provides a fun, hands-on approach to learning how mathematics and computing relate to the world around us and help us to better understand it. How can reposting on Twitter kill a movie's opening weekend? How can you use mathematics to find your celebrity look-alike? What is Homer Simpson’s method for disproving Fermat’s Last Theorem? Each topic in this refreshingly inviting book illustrates a famous mathematical algorithm or result--such as Google’s PageRank and the traveling salesman problem--and the applications grow more challenging as you progress through the chapters. But don’t worry, helpful solutions are provided each step of the way.
Math Bytes shows you how to do calculus using a bag of chocolate chips, and how to prove the Euler characteristic simply by doodling. Generously illustrated in color throughout, this lively and entertaining book also explains how to create fractal landscapes with a roll of the dice, pick a competitive bracket for March Madness, decipher the math that makes it possible to resize a computer font or launch an Angry Bird--and much, much more. All of the applications are presented in an accessible and engaging way, enabling beginners and advanced readers alike to learn and explore at their own pace--a bit and a byte at a time.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 19, 2014
This book appears targeted toward the reader who has an interest in math and isn't afraid to do some experimenting or homework on the side to play with the concepts. Reference is made to Martin Gardner puzzles. The book is fun and expects the reader to engage in hands-on learning. The author does a great job of motivating how math is used by computers to accomplish some pretty amazing things. As I read the book and spent time with some of the challenge problems I kept thinking this would be a great resource for a high school math teacher wanting to challenge students with a fun bonus problem every now and again related to some aspect of what they were getting out of their textbooks. The author presents some serious concepts encountered in more advanced college level math courses to the reader at a level that could be understood by an ambitious high school student. The author doesn't shy away from calculus, probability (there is a section on Markov chains), and image processing.
I loved the section on computing pi using chocolate candies or chips. This was a great introductory exercise into integration and would make a fun high school math activity.
I enjoyed seeing how linear algebra concepts can be applied to image processing. One notable example was taking a full color image and converting it to four colors. I was almost tempted to pull out my computer and whip up some code to give the concepts a try.
The book is well written and well suited for igniting an interest in higher mathematics. I liked this quote from the inside of the book jacket, and believe it sums up the contents quite well: "All of the applications are presented in an accessible and engaging way, enabling beginners and advanced readers alike to learn and explore at their own pace--a bit and a byte at a time."
I loved the section on computing pi using chocolate candies or chips. This was a great introductory exercise into integration and would make a fun high school math activity.
I enjoyed seeing how linear algebra concepts can be applied to image processing. One notable example was taking a full color image and converting it to four colors. I was almost tempted to pull out my computer and whip up some code to give the concepts a try.
The book is well written and well suited for igniting an interest in higher mathematics. I liked this quote from the inside of the book jacket, and believe it sums up the contents quite well: "All of the applications are presented in an accessible and engaging way, enabling beginners and advanced readers alike to learn and explore at their own pace--a bit and a byte at a time."
April 21, 2018
Yet another book-as-a-string-of-blog-posts. Disappointed that there was no common narrative, no tying things together.
December 19, 2014
This book on popular mathematics has some of the old (fractals), but most of it is relatively new. Chartier also includes formulas when needed; it is a rare occasion when integrals and inverse trig functions appear in popular mathematics books. While this may intimidate some readers, it is refreshing to people that expect the mathematics to be accurate and complete.
A mathematical topic is examined in detail in eleven of the chapters. I found the most entertaining one to be “Ranking a Google of Bits”, where the topic is the algorithm Google uses to rank the search results. While the specifics of the algorithm are a closely guarded trade secret, enough is publicly known so that it can be explained in a book. It was amusing to read the sidebar about the “Google bomb.” In 2003 a person exploited the rank algorithm so that the highest ranked response to the query “miserable failure” was the official White House biography of then President George W. Bush. Later, other well-known and controversial personalities were included in the highest rankings.
While the mathematical explanation is more complex than many can understand, all will appreciate the section on how to properly fire off an “Angry Bird” as the advice in the conclusion is easy to understand. The chapter on various mathematical ways to fill out a March Madness NCAA basketball tournament bracket is also one that will amuse all that succumb to that particular malady.
It is a very entertaining book with many areas of popular mathematics examined that have rarely been covered before. This makes it very refreshing as there has been a stale sameness to so many that have appeared in recent years.
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission
A mathematical topic is examined in detail in eleven of the chapters. I found the most entertaining one to be “Ranking a Google of Bits”, where the topic is the algorithm Google uses to rank the search results. While the specifics of the algorithm are a closely guarded trade secret, enough is publicly known so that it can be explained in a book. It was amusing to read the sidebar about the “Google bomb.” In 2003 a person exploited the rank algorithm so that the highest ranked response to the query “miserable failure” was the official White House biography of then President George W. Bush. Later, other well-known and controversial personalities were included in the highest rankings.
While the mathematical explanation is more complex than many can understand, all will appreciate the section on how to properly fire off an “Angry Bird” as the advice in the conclusion is easy to understand. The chapter on various mathematical ways to fill out a March Madness NCAA basketball tournament bracket is also one that will amuse all that succumb to that particular malady.
It is a very entertaining book with many areas of popular mathematics examined that have rarely been covered before. This makes it very refreshing as there has been a stale sameness to so many that have appeared in recent years.
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission
May 30, 2015
Math Bytes takes mathematical concepts and connects them to computers in a layman friendly way. I thought this was a great idea since that's one of the most common uses of mathematics today that people rarely notice when they operate a computer. Chartier does a pretty good job of relating the two ideas and trying to make his topics fun at the same time. My favorite chapters were relating fractals to creating random worlds, the connected paths for creating mazes, and the two different explorations on coloring photos and painting with M&Ms. I'm a high school math teacher that could probably find some ways to use this (doing pi with M&Ms would certainly be fun), but unfortunately our regular curriculum at the moment does not support matrices and discrete mathematics topics so a lot of this would be out or relegated to "bonus" material. Plus, given the very poor state of learning about computer programming and computer science in public education a lot of it would go right over their heads. It was a lot of fun for me to read, though!
July 18, 2015
I haven't read many math interest books, but this certainly hasn't been my favorite. It is larger made up of disjointed ideas with no over arching themes or ideas. While the individual chapters are interesting I don't get the "Gee math is fascinating" feeling when reading any of them. One of the problems in that most of the examples and recommend experiments require one to be quite savoy with coding. This makes it less accessible to the general population. If the indented audience isn't the general public but people with at least basic knowledge of a simple language, like MATLAB or Python, then the book so go a little more in depth I think.
June 27, 2014
I wanted it to be Good, but it was Not Good. I felt like the treatment of all the topics was pretty facile, and the connection between the math and the "applications" was often weak. I skimmed the back half. I can't recommend.
August 31, 2014
Math Bytes delivers small morsels of math goodies that you can quickly read, digest, and, if interested, play around with on your own.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews