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    The Math of Life and Death
    The Math of Life and Death
    The Math of Life and Death
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Math of Life and Death

    Written by Kit Yates

    Narrated by Kit Yates

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Brilliant and entertaining mathematician Kit Yates illuminates seven mathematical concepts that shape our daily lives.

    From birthdays to birth rates to how we perceive the passing of time, mathematical patterns shape our lives. But for those of us who left math behind in high school, the numbers and figures we encounter as we go about our days can leave us scratching our heads, feeling as if we’re fumbling through a mathematical minefield. In this eye-opening and “welcome addition to the math-for-people-who-hate-math” (Kirkus Reviews), Kit Yates illuminates hidden principles that can help us understand and navigate the chaotic and often opaque surfaces of our world.

    In The Math of Life and Death, Yates takes us on a “dizzying, dazzling” (Nature) tour of everyday situations and grand-scale applications of mathematical concepts, including exponential growth and decay, optimization, statistics and probability, and number systems. Along the way he reveals the mathematical undersides of controversies over DNA testing, Ponzi schemes, viral marketing, and historical events such as the Chernobyl disaster and the Amanda Knox trial. Readers will finish this book with an enlightened perspective on the news, the law, medicine, and history, and will be better equipped to make personal decisions and solve problems with math in mind, whether it’s choosing the shortest checkout line at the grocery store or halting the spread of a deadly disease.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 7, 2020
    ISBN9781797102627
    Author

    Kit Yates

    Kit Yates is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and codirector of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath. He completed his PhD in mathematics at the University of Oxford in 2011. His research into mathematical biology has been covered by the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail (London), RTE, Scientific American, and Reuters amongst others. The Math of Life and Death is his first book.

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    Reviews for The Math of Life and Death

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I feel like the author succeeded in making the case that anyone can succeed at mathematics if they have the right motivation. I enjoyed the mini-biographies of prominent figures in math who didn't originally start out studying math.

      The book reads like a collection of fascinating short stories where various tidbits of math unexpectedly come into play - the binary number system, cryptography, Euler's number, and so on.

      For those who are extremely conservative, they may dislike that the author's progressive politics occasionally come into play. For me, I thought their subtle inclusion was refreshing.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyable and the last chapter is very apt in these times where everyone is in quarantine. I'm actually looking forward to buying a hard copy of the book.