{"product_id":"9780141989143","title":"Humble Pi : A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker","description":"**The First Ever Maths Book to be a No.1 Bestseller**'Wonderful ... superb' Daily MailWhat makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? Billions of dollars  mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant  frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world.   As  Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer  programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works  quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Exploring and  explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the  internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire  and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre  ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place  in our world.   Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills', but  we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical  ally. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from  its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks,  jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong  has never been more fun.\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56225024344437,"sku":"9780141989143","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141989143.jpg?v=1762228368","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780141989143","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}