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What's the Use? book cover
What's the Use?
How Mathematics Shapes Everyday Life
2021
First Published
3.58
Average Rating
324
Number of Pages

See the world in a completely new way as an esteemed mathematician shows how math powers the world—from technology to health care and beyond. Almost all of us have sat in a math class, wondering when we'd ever need to know how to find the roots of a polynomial or graph imaginary numbers. And in one sense, we were if we needed to, we'd use a computer. But as Ian Stewart argues in What's the Use?, math isn't just about boring computations. Rather, it offers us new and profound insights into our world, allowing us to accomplish feats as significant as space exploration and organ donation. From the trigonometry that keeps a satellite in orbit to the prime numbers used by the world's most advanced security systems to the imaginary numbers that enable augmented reality, math isn't just relevant to our lives. It is the very fabric of our existence.

Avg Rating
3.58
Number of Ratings
146
5 STARS
17%
4 STARS
37%
3 STARS
34%
2 STARS
10%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads

Author

Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart
Author · 41 books

Ian Nicholas Stewart is an Emeritus Professor and Digital Media Fellow in the Mathematics Department at Warwick University, with special responsibility for public awareness of mathematics and science. He is best known for his popular science writing on mathematical themes. —from the author's website Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

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