Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker. Matt has written another great book addressing how our world revolves around math. My son and I are still working our way through Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension.
Above all, I have found his books certainly offer impactful stories that you will laugh out loud. At the same time, you will question at times, question how we as a species survive on this planet with such low expectations of understanding math in the real world.
The topics Matt addresses are very wide-ranging. What is also appealing is learning that many objects that we use daily in life are based around math. But do not worry if you were bad at math in grade school like me. You will really enjoy this book.
Matt is certainly upfront across all of Chapter 2 Engineering Mistakes. Matt documents many math errors when bridges across England and America was designed with mathematical flaws.
At first glance bridges certainly can appear structurally sound. However, the slightest mathematical engineering oversight results in tragedy.
In 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse was attributed to the flat metal sides of the bridge’s design. The bridge’s design was sleek and inexpensive. Yet it was lacking mesh metal and was perfect for “catching the wind” as they say.
Are we blinded by math?
Matt also teaches that we often believe we have “smart people in the room” developing products, however we somehow miss the easy stuff. An important lesson to grasp throughout his book. I am reminded of Ozan Varol’s excellent book Think Like a Rocket Scientist regarding those oversights.