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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 510
EAN: 9780809058402
ISBN: 0809058405
Label: Hill and Wang
Manufacturer: Hill and Wang
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: August 18, 2001
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Sales Rank: 38062
Studio: Hill and Wang
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Why do even well-educated people understand so little about mathematics? And what are the costs of our innumeracy? John Allen Paulos, in his celebrated bestseller first published in 1988, argues that our inability to deal rationally with very large numbers and the probabilities associated with them results in misinformed governmental policies, confused personal decisions, and an increased susceptibility to pseudoscience of all kinds. Innumeracy lets us know what we're missing, and how we can do something about it.
Sprinkling his discussion of numbers and probabilities with quirky stories and anecdotes, Paulos ranges freely over many aspects of modern life, from contested elections to sports stats, from stock scams and newspaper psychics to diet and medical claims, sex discrimination, insurance, lotteries, and drug testing. Readers of Innumeracy will be rewarded with scores of astonishing facts, a fistful of powerful ideas, and, most important, a clearer, more quantitative way of looking at their world.
Amazon.com Review:
This is the book that made 'innumeracy' a household word, at least in some households. Paulos admits that 'at least part of the motivation for any book is anger, and this book is no exception. I'm distressed by a society which depends so completely on mathematics and science and yet seems to indifferent to the innumeracy and scientific illiteracy of so many of its citizens.'
But that is not all that drives him. The difference between our pretensions and reality is absurd and humorous, and the numerate can see this better than those who don't speak math. 'I think there's something of the divine in these feelings of our absurdity, and they should be cherished, not avoided.'
Paulos is not entirely successful at balancing anger and absurdity, but he tries. His diatribes against astrology, bad math education, Freud, and willful ignorance are leavened with jokes, mathematical or the sort (he claims) favored by the numerate.
It remains to be seen if Innumeracy will indeed be able, as Hofstadter hoped, to 'help launch a revolution in math education that would do for innumeracy what Sabin and Salk did for polio'--but many of the improvements Paulos suggested have come to pass within 10 years. Only time will tell if the generation raised on these new principles is more resistant to innumeracy--and need only worry about being incomputable. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Mathematical Literacy Has Its Benefits
We live in a society that is more and more advanced technologically. Curiously, however, at the same time the nation's math skills are weakening decade by decade.
John Allen Paulos's "Innumeracy" attempts to address one aspect of this situation by offering some rudiments of probability theory. Many times in the lives of individuals and of nations, poor decisions are made due to an inadequate knowledge of probability. Some of the topics the author mentions include regression to the mean, coincidence, correlation and causation, and trade-offs between societal and individual rights. The author also discusses innumeracy as it relates to ESP and UFOs.
Knowing the basics of probability can even help your health. By focusing on the actual probability of your worries coming to pass, you can eliminate many groundless worries from your life and thus save wear and tear on your nervous system.
Rating: - An Interesting Read
This was an interesting book that I would highly recommend to anyone NOT number-savvy. I had heard good things about it, and as someone who appreciates the importance of math, I thought it would be great to check out. It was written with the lay-person as its target audience, so being someone who already knows a great deal of mathematics, I was underwhelmed. The book is clearly written, and explains concepts slowly and carefully as it illustrates every-day math for the common person.
Honestly, this book felt a bit like "See Spot Run," but for mathematics instead of the English language. Even though it was a bit boring for the mathematically inclined, I highly recommend it for anyone suffering from "Mathematical Illiteracy." If you have ever said to yourself "I'm not a numbers person," then this book is for you.
Rating: - Must-Reading
"Innumeracy" goes beyond the expectation of a non-mathematician, user-friendly book. It wakes up your awareness of what passes as "statistics", "experts", "economics", and various numeric analysis in the popular media.
I bought the book after seeing it referenced in another science book. I was interested in a basis for how much bias, or straight ignorance, was posing in the guise of expert. I was more than satisfied with "Innumeracy" in this regard.
Read it twice. Put it down for a month, pay attention to what's in the news, etc. then read it again. You will be a much better consumer of numbers.
Rating:  - Good ... but starting to show its age
I have read several "mathematics for a popular audience" books as a high school math teacher who has done graduate work in mathematics. This is considered a classic, but I felt like it was no longer up to date at times. Also, I had the feeling I had read many of the better examples and such in other places - again this book is now a classic. It is good, but I have read similar books that I enjoyed more.
Rating: - Very good book
I felt like I knew about numbers before the book, and now I realize that I need to review and study numbers! I asked a bunch of friends about some of the simple problems in the book and found that many of them could not figure it out! Definitely read this
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