The Secret Lives of Numbers: The Curious Truth Behind Everyday Digits

by Michael Millar

This is a book for the observant and the curious. A book for people who take in their surroundings and wonder at the smallest why ? Above all, it's a book about numbers—those that surround us every day, and the intriguing stories behind them. From the 7-day week to 24-carat gold, Chanel No. 5 to five-star luxury, The Secret Lives of Numbers figures out the mysterious background to the numbers we encounter on a daily basis. Revealing the facts behind those figures, author Michael Millar outlines where to spot each digit, what it means, and how it came to be in meticulously researched and entertaining entries, creating an absorbing and intelligent book that's perfect for any numbers fan. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 . . . Entries sports shirt numbers, firearms calibers, TV ratings, football rankings, poker scores, sunscreen factors, A4 paper, and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Trivia, Mathematics, Science, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2012

About the author

Michael Millar was an award-winning journalist before taking his pieces of silver and becoming a political lobbyist and corporate spin doctor.

Before turning to the dark side, Michael reported from Iraq during the war; was business editor of BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme; and wrote, broadcast and dissembled from all sorts of programmes, websites and publications, some more august than others.

As a non-fiction author, Michael’s previous work includes The Secret Lives of Numbers (Random House, 2012), which was translated into several languages, as well The Five-Minute Failure (Rock-Hill Publishing, 2006).

Reviews

[Diogo Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read

Assorted collection of general knowledge facts related to numbers (not mathematical).
Some variability across chapters in terms of their interest, but overall a good light read, and gives you some interesting factoids for dinner parties.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoyed this book; the way it was constructed was beautiful. I found that the writing style didn't make the book boring but more fascinating, it was a weird experience seeing the significance of everyday numbers that sometimes we just look over and think nothing of. The book brought up so many interesting thoughts and I will never think about these over-looked numbers again I don't think. When Michael Millar says "This book is not boring." he is not exaggerating it is a masterpiece.
This is going to sound weird but if books were a meal this book would be very filling. I also found the fact that this book covers many topics quite intriguing.

[Arne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Yup, that's about it, cute.

- Cloud 9 is the ninth cloud in the atmospheric classification of clouds.
- The duckworth-Lewis system uses number of overs and wickets remaining as "resources" that a team can use to score runs. Ooooh.
- The bricks at 10 Downing street aren't black
- The dollar sign $ comes from an abbreviation for the silver coin unit Piece of Eight /8/
- 24 Karat gold is 99.95% pure, 14 Karat gold has 14 parts gold and 10 parts alloy, always adds up to 24

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy read that’s actually very interesting - as opposed to the physical clickbait of witty titles and oddball topics that have lured me before.

I’ve never before questioned some of the numbers explored in this book, but having their histories explained has been a sort of penny-dropping experience.

The knowledge in this book has also been to slip into conversations so far.

[Mikeh5972 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some enjoyable insights into the meaning behind our use of numbers. I enjoyed it as it contributed a lot to my knowledge of trivia.

[Argaen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una lista de datos freak que sería mucho mejor si tuviera dibujos o fotos.

[Ali Sabri Sır · Rating 3 out of 5]

Güzel fakat bir o kadarda bilinen veya ilgi çekmeyen hikayeler üzerinden sayılar anlatılmış

[Sidik Fofana · Rating 4 out of 5]

SIX WORD REVIEW: British have numbers for pub glasses.

[Grainne Wrigley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book was the humour

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non si parla di matematica in questo libro ma solo di alcuni numeri, e delle curiosità a loro collegate, non certo matematiche. Abbiamo per esempio 562 che rappresenta uno dei codici più noti dei produttori di boccali di birra, ma anche i codici scritti sugli pneumatici e nei vinili. Il libro è molto britannico, e quindi a volte un po' lontano da quello che troviamo qui da noi. L'inizio è un po' debole, poi per fortuna il testo si è ripreso abbastanza bene: la traduzione di Adria Tissoni è scorrevole.

[Beorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly interesting read.
On the surface, it could appear remarkably tedious, but it is actually written well enough to be interesting to anyone with an interest in general knowledge, trivia or whatever you want to call it and is far from being of interest solely to maths geeks.

[Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very boring zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz