Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
Pluses and Minuses : How Maths Solves Our Problems - Stefan Buijsman

Pluses and Minuses

How Maths Solves Our Problems

By: Stefan Buijsman

Paperback | 21 July 2020

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $32.99

$30.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.75 with

 or 

Ships in 3 to 5 business days

A book about who and what counts in life, mathematic and philosophically.

You look up from your phone for a moment to order an espresso. It's made with one of those large stainless-steel coffee makers that heats the water until it's precisely the right temperature. It keeps track of how fast the water warms up and uses that to calculate whether it needs to apply more or less heat, until the perfect temperature is attained. You're not aware of any of it, but right in front of your nose those formulae that your maths teacher talked about are being used to make your cup of coffee.

Thousands of years ago, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia became the first humans to use numbers. Since then, mathematics has become an unstoppable force. It's behind almost everything, from search engines to cruise control, from coffee-makers to timetables. But now that we hardly ever need to do arithmetic, how relevant is mathematics to everyday life?

Drawing on examples within the interconnected fields of philosophy, psychology and history, Dr Stefan Buijsman explores the role mathematics plays in the modern world.
Industry Reviews
'From Netflix's Numbers to the Maths of Manhattan, Buijsman's book gets one big plus from me!' * Adam Spencer *

More in Popular Science

Open When . . . : A Companion for Life's Twists & Turns - Dr Julie Smith
The Age Code : The New Science of Food and How It Can Save Us - David Cox
The First Astronomers : How Indigenous Elders read the stars - Duane Hamacher
Tambora : The Eruption That Changed the World - Gillen D'Arcy Wood

RRP $34.99

$29.99

14%
OFF
Liars, cheats and copycats : Trickery and deception in nature - James O'Hanlon
The Ideological Brain : A Radical Science of Susceptible Minds - Leor Zmigrod
Sapiens : A Graphic History: Volume 1 - Yuval Noah Harari

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
How To Change Your Mind : New Science of Psychedelics - Michael Pollan
Ferment : The Life-Changing Power of Microbes - Tim Spector

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Sapiens A Graphic History, Volume 2 : The Pillars of Civilization - Yuval Noah Harari
A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 - Bill Bryson

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Swainston's Fishes of Australia : The complete illustrated guide - Roger Swainston