"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Matt Parker – Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

November 2, 2020

What 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.

Matt Parker,
Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
ed. Allen Lane

Ho appena finito di leggere questo libro, regalato da un amico, e volevo consigliarlo anche a voi, specie in questo lunedì in cui si torna prepotentemente a respirare atmosfera di lockdown e c’è bisogno di alleggerire i toni.

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.

Vi siete mai trovati con formule che avrebbero dovuto restituire un risultato e invece ne davano un altro? Con script che generavano banane anziché ciò che avevate in mente? Questo libro fa per voi.

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Posted at 00:05h, 24 November Reply

[…] questo. L’autore del video è Matt Parker, auto-definito stand-up mathematician, di cui ho consigliato un libro qualche settimana fa. No, il video non c’è in italiano. No, non ci sono i sottotitoli. No, non ho intenzione di […]