by. John Allen Paulos. · Rating details · 3, ratings · reviews. Dozens of examples in innumeracy show us how it affects not only personal economics. A review, and links to other information about and reviews of Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences. Front Cover. John Allen Paulos. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, – Mathematics – pages.
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I think that in a book it would work to make the whole thing readable from the start, but to gradually introduce more difficult ideas through the book.
Jul 09, Lisa rated it did not like it Shelves: There are some good ideas and points in here. The book sheds light on the link between innumeracy and pseudoscience.
One difficulty the innumerate often have is translating principle into practice, and though Paulos does his best to show the principles in practice it often isn’t enough. Books by John Allen Paulos.
August 30,8: If you, like me, were looking for a book describing how experts manipulate numbers to advance specious public policy, this book isn’t for you. Innumeracy, an inability to deal comfortably with the fundamental notions of number and chance, plagues far too many otherwise knowledgeable citizens.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences
I fear that my personal finance writing attracts people already comfortable and fluent with financial topics, seeking confirmation of their relative sophistication. Dec 01, Kevin rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: So if Harry is betting heads and Tom is betting tails, and after the first tosses Harry just happens to be ahead 60 to 40, Harry is likely to stay ahead for a long time.
View all 3 comments. Do they feel kind of the same to you? The understatement, however, is symptomatic of a pervasive innumeracy which ill suits a technologically based society. Anyway, those issues are minimal compared to the enormous value this book can bring by painting a broad picture of the various social consequences of a lack of mathematical fervor in our culture. Not to denigrate any person willing to be an educator but even they are being failed by the system that is teaching them.
Paulos gets the maths right in his general examples, but many of these are Never judge a book by its cover or, in this case, by its title.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulos
He then methodically recounts the money once, twice, three times. But, that doesn’t mean he isn’t right, and for those who enjoy the acerbic comedy of George Carlin, it wouldn’t be a problem at all. Macmillan- Mathematics – pages. Ni siquiera se trata en profundidad el tema que le da nombre: Retrieved 5 September For example, the danger of getting killed in a car accident is much greater than terrorism and this danger should be reflected in how we allocate our limited resources.
That correlation and causality are not equal.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences – John Allen Paulos – Google Books
I like this book, and recommend it to anyone with the time to read it. It was educational, and I learned a good amount of information. He looks at real-world examples in stock scams, psychics, astrology, sports records, elections, sex discrimination, UFOs, insurance and law, lotteries and johm testing. A summer visitor enters a hardware store in Maine and buys a large number of expensive items. Expressed in scientific notation, the answers to the questions posed earlier are: Even had Paulos focused more on the last word of that subtitle, the consequences and implications, this might have felt more worthwhile.
Ny example, one of the sections focuses on normal fluctuations, like how one shooter in a basketball game may have a good streak and then a bad streak without either having a lot innumeract significance.
Anyway, reasonable people often believe total crap too.
Enthusiastic people could go into various careers where they may make a difference if only they had that solid mathematical base needed for a few college credits. He also has some ideas for improving the state of mathematical education, some of which seem plausible and some of which seem downright wacky. Why don”t news magazines and newspapers make appropriate use pualos scientific notation in their stories?
The number 4 is not exactly commonplace, but numbers like ten thousand, one million, and a trillion are. That’s all well and good, but it can lead to being condescending and dismissive, to grumpy ranting instead of a full and detailed argument.
Book Review: Innumeracy, by John Allen Paulos
I do appreciate the author’s clear love of math, and there are several good examples. He mentions standard things like poor math education, psychological blocks like “math anxiety”, and popular misconceptions that math is just cold spiritless arithmetic. Feb 06, Abby rated it it was ok Shelves: Open Preview See a Problem? His arrogance is particularly off-putting when casually insulting educators a population to which I belong and also when dismissing dreams; though I accept his point about their predictability, I respect the human mind enough to acknowledge we probably don’t understand exactly how they work yet.
It then goes on to explain how to not be i Innumeracy is a book about how to not be ignorant of numbers and math. Aug 04, Jim Razinha rated it it was amazing.
Too many are not mathematically capable nor are they interested in teaching mathematics beyond the basics. The difficulty that not only our youth are experiencing when dealing with innumeracg but the most basic of math skills but how this has been an on-going problem for decades.
A useful book — but who will read it? My library Help Advanced Book Search.