Synopses & Reviews
The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examplesfrom ice cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squaresthis book empowers you to see the beauty, simplicity, and truly magical properties behind those formulas and equations that once left your head spinning. Youll learn the key ideas of classic areas of mathematics like arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus, but youll also have fun fooling around with Fibonacci numbers, investigating infinity, and marveling over mathematical magic tricks that will make you look like a math genius!
A mathematician who is known throughout the world as the mathemagician,” Arthur Benjamin mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun, attractive, and easy to understand. In The Magic of Math, Benjamin does more than just teach skills: with a tip of his magic hat, he takes you on as his apprentice to teach you how to appreciate math the way he does. He motivates you to learn something new about how to solve for x, because there is real pleasure to be found in the solution to a challenging problem or in using numbers to do something useful. But what he really wants you to do is be able to figure out why, for thats where youll find the real beauty, power, and magic of math.
If you are already someone who likes math, this book will dazzle and amuse you. If you never particularly liked or understood math, Benjamin will enlighten you andwith a wave of his magic wandturn you into a math lover.
Review
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE MAGIC OF MATHIn these pages, numbers combine, numbers describe, and numbers keep time. O, what you can predict with these magical tricks. They even give odds a chance. With Arts book in your hands, the numbers will dance.”
Bill Nye, Science Educator and CEO, The Planetary Society
Synopsis
A New York Times bestseller
The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examplesfrom ice cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squaresthis book empowers you to see the beauty, simplicity, and truly magical properties behind those formulas and equations that once left your head spinning. You ll learn the key ideas of classic areas of mathematics like arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus, but you ll also have fun fooling around with Fibonacci numbers, investigating infinity, and marveling over mathematical magic tricks that will make you look like a math genius
A mathematician who is known throughout the world as the mathemagician, Arthur Benjamin mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun, attractive, and easy to understand. In The Magic of Math, Benjamin does more than just teach skills: with a tip of his magic hat, he takes you on as his apprentice to teach you how to appreciate math the way he does. He motivates you to learn something new about how to solve for x, because there is real pleasure to be found in the solution to a challenging problem or in using numbers to do something useful. But what he really wants you to do is be able to figure out why, for that s where you ll find the real beauty, power, and magic of math.
If you are already someone who likes math, this book will dazzle and amuse you. If you never particularly liked or understood math, Benjamin will enlighten you andwith a wave of his magic wandturn you into a math lover.
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Synopsis
The world's greatest mental mathematical magician takes us on a spellbinding journey through the wonders of numbers (and more) "Arthur Benjamin ... joyfully shows you how to make nature's numbers dance."--Bill Nye (the science guy)
The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples-from ice-cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squares-this book revels in key mathematical fields including arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and calculus, plus Fibonacci numbers, infinity, and, of course, mathematical magic tricks. Known throughout the world as the "mathemagician," Arthur Benjamin mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun, attractive, and easy to understand for math fan and math-phobic alike.
"A positively joyful exploration of mathematics."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Each trick] is more dazzling than the last."
-Physics World
Synopsis
The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples, from ice cream scoops and poker hands that teach you factorials to mnemonics that help you memorize pi, this book empowers you to see the beauty, simplicity, and fun behind those formulas and equations that once left your head spinning. Youll learn the key ideas of classic areas of mathematics like arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus; but youll also have fun playing with pi, fooling around with Fibonacci numbers, investigating infinity, and marveling over mathematical magic tricks. A tour of the greatest hits of mathematics, The Magic of Math is a book for both fans of mathematics and those who want to be proven wrong about their previous prejudices of math.
Arthur Benjamin is a mathematicianknown throughout the world as the mathemagician”who mixes mathematics and magic to make the subject fun and beautiful. Math lovers are going to find new ways to look at old friends, the way a view from a mountaintop puts a beautiful valley in a new perspective. For everyone who never particularly liked or understood mathThe Magic of Math is going to put you under its spell.
About the Author
Arthur Benjamin holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins University and is a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, where he has taught since 1989. He is a noted mathemagician,” known for being able to perform complicated computations in his head. He is the author, most recently, of The Secrets of Mental Math, and has appeared on The Today Show and The Colbert Report. Benjamin has been profiled in such publications as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Scientific American, Discover, and Wired.
Table of Contents
1. The Magic of Numbers
2. The Magic of Algebra
3. The Magic of 9
4. The Magic of Counting
5. The Magic of Fibonacci Numbers
6. The Magic of Proofs
7. The Magic of Geometry
8. The Magic of Pi
9. The Magic of Trigonometry
10. The Magic of i and e
11. The Magic of Calculus
12. The Magic of Infinity