- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; First Edition edition (1 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0465051588
- ISBN-13: 978-0465051588
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.5 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,418,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Mathematician John Allen Paulos bravely bridges the scientific and literary cultures with this amusing, enlightening look at numbers and stories. If you think those two things go together like a "horse and a paperclip," as Allen wryly observes, you only have to look at phenomena like the Bible codes, the stock market's ups and downs, and the Clinton sex scandal to begin to understand the hidden bonds between them. Put simply, mathematics can describe everything that happens, and everything that happens contextualises mathematics. In demonstrating this, Paulos continues the noble numeracy crusade he began with A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper and Beyond Numeracy. Perhaps the most compelling thought experiments in the book are those of the statistics of stereotyping and race relations. Paulos shows, mathematically, that minority status makes achieving equality extraordinarily difficult.
If you want to keep hold of your comfortable worldview, don't read Once Upon a Number. But you'll be missing out on an unforgettable reminder of what chance, coincidence and odds really mean, along with several valuable life lessons that may help you understand lost socks, racism and mistaken identity. --Therese Littleton, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In his well-known style, full of anecdotes and witty observations, Americas favorite mathematician takes on our two most basic ways of representing informationnarratives and numbersshowing the surprising things they have in common. . Once Upon a Number shows that stories and numbers arent as different as you might imagine. In fact, they have surprising and fascinating connections. Beside lucid accounts of cutting-edge information theory we get hilarious anecdotes and jokes; instructions for running a truly impressive pyramid scam; a freewheeling conversation between Groucho Marx and Bertrand Russell; explanations of why the mundane facts of the O. J. Simpson case are overwhelmingly incriminating; how the Unabombers thinking shows signs of mathematical training; why were much more likely to feel aggrieved than aggrieving; and dozens of other treats. America's most engaging mathematician has done it again. What two things could be more different than numbers and stories? Numbers are abstract, certain, and eternal, but to most of us somewhat dry and bloodless. Good stories are full of life: they engage our emotions and have subtlety and nuance, but they lack rigor and the truths they tell are elusive and subject to debate. As ways of understanding the world around us, numbers and stories seem almost completely incompatible. Once Upon a Number shows that stories and numbers arent as different as you might imagine, and in fact they have surprising and fascinating connections. The concepts of logic and probability both grew out of intuitive ideas about how certain situations would play out. Now, logicians are inventing ways to deal with real world situations by mathematical meansby acknowledging, for instance, that items that are mathematically interchangeable may not be interchangeable in a story. And complexity theory looks at both number strings and narrative strings in remarkably similar terms. Throughout, renowned author John Paulos mixes numbers and narratives in his own delightful style. Along with lucid accounts of cutting-edge information theory we get hilarious anecdotes and jokes; instructions for running a truly impressive pyramid scam; a freewheeling conversation between Groucho Marx and Bertrand Russell (while theyre stuck in an elevator together); explanations of why the statistical evidence against OJ Simpson was overwhelming beyond doubt and how the Unabombers thinking shows signs of mathematical training; and dozens of other treats. This is another winner from Americas favorite mathematician.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I saw the Salon review of this and promptly ordered it. A little trepidatious at first, I thought the book might be a rehash of Innumeracy and A Mathematician reads the Newspaper, which I loved. I was wrong. The book has Paulos's wry, witty tone and the many examples and insights are characteristically quirky, but the topic is very different - the similarities and differences between stories and mathematics, between their associated logics and world views, and the different mindsets they bring about. Somehow he relates Murphy's Law, the limited complexity of the human brain, topical news stories, bible codes, race issues, and many other amusing tidbits into a coherent argument about our place in the world. And there isn't an equation in sight.
Format:Hardcover
Some statistical and mathematical application is fascinating, and the book opens with some really interesting angles and examples. I became disappointed as it seemed to run out of ideas, become very academic and in doing so lost my interest.
It seemed to me the main objective had been to demonstrate a high level of knowledge and some good reading, which was acheived, but this just lost me. I am a bit of a geek, I work with numbers and love spreadsheets. I've got two degrees in mathematical subjects, but couldn't get stimulated by this. Judging by other reviews this is not the prevailing view, but certainly my experience.
It seemed to me the main objective had been to demonstrate a high level of knowledge and some good reading, which was acheived, but this just lost me. I am a bit of a geek, I work with numbers and love spreadsheets. I've got two degrees in mathematical subjects, but couldn't get stimulated by this. Judging by other reviews this is not the prevailing view, but certainly my experience.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am a mathematical psychologist, a term viewed by some as a contradiction in terms. It is not certain that John Allen Paulo's book Once Upon A Number could have spared me some of the most embarrassing moments of my life but it sure would have helped.
Being acutely aware of the irrational but real boundaries between people who think in terms of formula and numbers and those who think with metaphors and analogies might have prevented some rejected papers, confused audiences and irrational abstracts. I am not sure about how well I have learned the lesson, but at least I have been properly warned. Valuable book!
William S. Dockens III PhD.
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