That's Maths: The Mathematical Magic in Everyday Life

by Peter Lynch

From atom bombs to rebounding slinkies, open your eyes to the mathematical magic in the everyday. Mathematics isn't just for academics and scientists, a fact meteorologist and blogger Peter Lynch has spent the past several years proving through his Irish Times newspaper column and blog, That's Maths.Here, he shows how maths is all around us, with chapters on the beautiful equations behind designing a good concert venue, predicting the stock market and modelling the atom bomb, as well as playful meditations on everything from coin-stacking to cartography. If you left school thinking maths was boring, think again!

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Physics

346 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2016

About the author

Peter Lynch is Emeritus Professor of Meteorology at University College Dublin and a maths fanatic. In his retirement Peter continues his research in dynamical meteorology and expounds the awesome wonders of maths in his blog, That's Maths, with a fortnightly column of the same name for The Irish Times.

Reviews

[Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice book. Actually the book comprises many chapters (articles) that are not linked together. Only they share one theme of applied math and physics.
I liked many definitions and concepts in the book like:
1- The difference between TOPOLOGY and GEOMETRY. Topology is often called rubber-sheet geometry since a figure drawn on an elastic sheet retains its topological properties when the sheet is stretched but not torn.

2- Acoustic excellence in large halls where sound reverberates and causing unclarity for audience. Sabine developed a formula for the reverberation (reverb) time. As reverb time decreases, clarity of sound increases. The formula is considered now the basis for all architects to develop sound-friendly architecture building.

3- Richard Hamming created a mechanism that is utilized for code theory. This mechanism is used to increase reliability of communication through adding parity checks (4/7). This mechanism can correct some errors and can detect other errors in a communicated message without correction.

Mathematics is involved in every aspect all the time of our lives. Mathematics is a beauty and a power. Through it you can sense, discover, and predict.

[TJ Bourke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little compilation of anecdotes on the impact of maths on our curious little world. Narrated with a nice light touch.

[Looney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its more of commentary then anything else.
But it is enjoyable read for uninitiated - there are so many a new things you could learn (not mathematically though).

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful little essays that demonstrate the pervasiveness of mathematics in every sphere of life. Needs more than high school level of mathematics in order to appreciate the applications.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 2 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.