Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
A series of narratives of what happens when maths go wrong in the real world. Since no one is perfect, mistakes are everywhere...Engineering mistakes and maths mistakes have immense consequences - some hilarious, some tragic.
A great bedside table book - the kind you pick up after you get in bed, read a few sections of, then fall asleep. Matt read this book first, of course, and I kind of scoffed when he told me I'd enjoy it. But then, the first story was about a Pepsi advertising campaign foiled by math, so. I guess he wins. Reading about math fails was more fun than I thought it would be - but there are also some really heartbreaking stories about people who died when bridges collapsed, when there were errors in the medical field, etc.
A beach read for people who like math (or coding or engineering etc). Even though I was aware of many of the examples, the presentation is great and makes this a very fun read.