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A Numerate Life: A Mathematician Explores the Vagaries of Life, His Own and Probably Yours; Library Edition
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Bibliographic Detail
Publisher Blackstone Audio Inc
Publication date November 1, 2016
Binding CD/Spoken Word
Edition Unabridged
Book category Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13 9781469004204
ISBN-10 1469004208
Dimensions 0 by 5.10 by 5.68 in.
Original list price $76.99
Other format details audio
Summaries and Reviews
Amazon.com description: Product Description:

Employing intuitive ideas from mathematics, this quirky meta-memoir raises questions about our lives that most of us don't think to ask but arguably should: What part of memory is reliable fact, what part creative embellishment? Which favorite presuppositions are unfounded, which statistically biased? By conjoining two opposing mindsets-the suspension of disbelief required in storytelling and the skepticism inherent in the scientific method-bestselling mathematician John Allen Paulos has created an unusual hybrid, a composite of personal memories and mathematical approaches to reevaluating them.

Entertaining vignettes from Paulos' biography abound-ranging from a bullying math teacher and a fabulous collection of baseball cards to romantic crushes, a grandmother's petty larceny, and his quite unintended role in getting George Bush elected president in 2000. These vignettes serve as springboards to many telling perspectives: simple arithmetic puts life-long habits in a dubious new light; higher dimensional geometry helps us see that we're all rather peculiar; nonlinear dynamics explains the narcissism of small differences cascading into very different siblings; logarithms and exponentials yield insight on why we tend to become bored and jaded as we age; and there are tricks and jokes, probability and coincidences, and much more.

For fans of Paulos or newcomers to his work, this witty commentary on his life-and yours-is fascinating listening.



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CD/Spoken Word
Book cover for 9781469004204
 
The price comparison is for this edition
Unabridged edition from Blackstone Audio Inc (November 1, 2016)
9781469004204 | details & prices | List price $76.99
About: Employing intuitive ideas from mathematics, this quirky meta-memoir raises questions about our lives that most of us don't think to ask but arguably should: What part of memory is reliable fact, what part creative embellishment?

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