Product Description

With a foreword by Tim Rice, this book will change the way you see the world. Why is it better to buy a lottery ticket on a Thursday? Why are showers always too hot or too cold? And what's the connection between Rob Andrew taking a conversion in rugby and a tourist trying to get the best photograph of Nelson's Column? These and many other fascinating questions are answered in this entertaining and highly informative book ideal for anyone wanting to remind themselves - or discover for the first time - that maths is relevant to almost everything that we do. As explained here, dating, cooking, travelling, gambling and even life-saving are all linked with intriguing mathematical problems. Whether you have a PhD in astrophysics or haven't touched a maths problem since your school days, this book will give you a fresh understanding of the hidden maths in the world around you.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9438 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you've ever bought a Lottery ticket and wondered about your bad luck afterwards, you've had to deal with math. From timing to probability, it pervades our every waking moment, and even the most crippling maths-phobia can't make it go away. Writers Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham throw up their hands in defeat and give in to the amusing, interesting and practical aspects of math in Why Do Buses Come in Threes?. Taking their title from the oft-noticed phenomenon of clumping in mass transit, they explain in clear, common-sense language why this must be so. At the end of their description, you might be left with the uneasy sense that you just learned some maths and on a quick review, you'll find that the authors have in fact snuck some in under your radar. In chapter after chapter, Eastaway and Wyndham successfully navigate statistics, codes, coincidences and many other parts of our lives, peeling away the surface to show what's really going on to make our lives so weird and wonderful. Diagrams and drawings help to make their points even clearer and there are almost never any scary formulae to frighten the timid. If you've been waiting your whole life to learn the Ham Sandwich Theorem, or just want to put some old fears to rest, Why Do Buses Come in Threes? is the solution. --Rob Lightner, Amazon.com

Review
"'An interesting read for even the most maths-phobic' - 'The Good Book Guide'; 'Very entertaining' - 'Sunday Telegraph'; 'A fascinating book' - 'Daily Mail'"

Synopsis
With a foreword by Tim Rice, this book will change the way you see the world. Why is it better to buy a lottery ticket on a Thursday? Why are showers always too hot or too cold? And what's the connection between Rob Andrew taking a conversion in rugby and a tourist trying to get the best photograph of Nelson's Column? These and many other fascinating questions are answered in this entertaining and highly informative book ideal for anyone wanting to remind themselves - or discover for the first time - that maths is relevant to almost everything that we do. As explained here, dating, cooking, travelling, gambling and even life-saving are all linked with intriguing mathematical problems. Whether you have a PhD in astrophysics or haven't touched a maths problem since your school days, this book will give you a fresh understanding of the hidden maths in the world around you.

Customer Reviews

Great for sceptical pupils
"Sir, what's the point of maths?" The question that any maths teacher dreads. This is one of the books that I always recommend to my older pupils (aged 15 plus) who want to see how maths connects to the sort of things they are interested in. There are nuggets of interest in every chapter, with some serious mathematical ideas interspersed with other much lighter stuff. Apart from its sister book How Long is A Piece of String, I know of no other maths book that is pitched in this sort of fun and accessible tone with such real-world content.

Does ANYONE ask these questions?
This book addresses 18 questions that anyone might ask where a knowledge of mathematics would be helpful. Examples include "Why am I always in traffic jams?", "What's the best bet?" and (of course) "Why do buses come in threes?"

(Personally some of the questions I ask myself include "Why do I never have any money?" and "Why aren't I more attractive to women?" but mathematics doesn't seem to have any insights to offer and indeed, the fact that I purchased this book in the first place may answer both questions simultaneously.)

Of the previous reviews of this book 8 were very positive and 2 negative. Knowing what I do now, I can tell this was a biased sample with people who liked the book much more likely to register their approval than people who gave up after a few pages. If only I could have found that out more quickly.

The first two chapters hardly help. "Why can't I find a four-leafed clover?" is hardly an everyday question and the answer (because things occur in a Fibonacci series of numbers) is neither interesting or useful. The second chapter "Which way should I go?" is potentially interesting but is fatally flawed by using the illustration of a game allegedly played citizens of Kaliningrad over how to cross the five bridges in the city without crossing any one twice, or something. In fairness the book picked up a bit after that with interesting chapters on why clever people get things wrong and coincidences. After that it starts to tail away ("What's the best view of Nelson's column?" - who cares! "What's the best way to cut a cake?" - WHAT? Who ever asked that question??? And "How do you keep a secret" on making and breaking codes - haven't thought about it since I was ten years old.)

Some of it is pretty well known (like lottery odds), other bits are common sense ("How do I get the meal ready on time?" - by reading the back of the packet ...), and still other bits are too obscure to remember. One of the other Amazon reviewers says they acquired lots of things to talk about at dinner-parties - wow, how lucky would you have to be to get sat next to THEM for a whole evening? But who am I fooling, I paid money for the book to, so I am just as sad - I wouldn't advise you to do the same. If you really must get a copy from your library but make sure you borrow something else at the same time.

A different kind of maths book
Maths books, even 'popular' ones, generally approach the subject from an abstract point of view. That is partly because mathematics is a beautiful subject in its own right, regardless of its link with the real world. The problem, however, is that most people don't see it that way. What makes 'Why do buses' different is that it is centred firmly on the world of everyday experiences that most people can relate to, like coincidences and traffic jams, and from that starting point it goes on to explore the mathematical ideas behind those phenomena. The book isn't nearly as mathematical as it could be, but if there was more maths in it, I'm prepared to bet that far fewer people would ever have read it, which would defeat the point of it.