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    The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
    The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
    The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity

    Written by Steven Strogatz

    Narrated by Jonathan Yen

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, and insight.

    Whether he is illuminating how often you should flip your mattress to get the maximum lifespan from it, explaining just how Google searches the internet, or determining how many people you should date before settling down, Strogatz shows how math connects to every aspect of life. Discussing pop culture, medicine, law, philosophy, art, and business, Strogatz is the math teacher you wish you'd had. Whether you aced integral calculus or aren't sure what an integer is, you'll find profound wisdom and persistent delight in The Joy of x.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJul 30, 2019
    ISBN9781630154790
    Author

    Steven Strogatz

    STEVEN STROGATZ is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. A renowned teacher and one of the world’s most highly cited mathematicians, he has blogged about math for the New York Times and The New Yorker and has been a frequent guest on Radiolab and Science Friday. He is the author of Sync and The Joy of x. He lives in Ithaca, New York.  

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    Reviews for The Joy of X

    4/5

    165 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Thank you for making me love math and physics and using my intuition to figure things out. My whole life I’m going backwards as I’m going forwards I would never thought I would become a mathematician who knows physics in my group. And I know nothing still to this day.. I wish more teachers are like yourself. Thank you
    • 5/5
      Stepfather does a good job of connecting with my mind most of the time. I get new and fresh perspectives on many things. A pdf or image would have helped me during the set theory and infinity discussion.
    • 4/5
      A fun, breezy, not too long survey of a variety of topics in mathematics. I forgot that at least some of this had appeared on the New York Times website, so I may actually have read some of this before. Despite not having studied math since 1995, I found it very easy to follow and would even have welcomed some more complexity. Not one for the math majors, but a good read for those of us who may once have known the difference between differential and integral calculus, but could no longer remember what it is. (This book will refresh your memory.)
    • 3/5
      You wouldn’t know it, but maths permeates everything we do and touch. Your smartphone would not be able to operate without maths, nor would the internet. You couldn’t buy anything risk free if we didn’t have the primes. Things as unlikely as the correct time to flip a mattress, the number of people to date before settling down, the best path from A to B, that if you look hard enough you can see sine waves everywhere all have some element of maths in them.

      He does manage to take a subject that many people find confusing and make it manageable and understandable and possibly a tiny bit less scary. There is the odd subject that will make non mathematical readers blanch a bit (it involves quadratic equations), but you’ll be pleased to hear that there are not many subjects that he cannot clearly illuminate. It is packed with photos, picture and diagrams to help illustrate each of the short punchy subjects. Overall a good introduction to maths for those who need to brush up a little when staring at their children’s homework in a bemused fashion.
    • 4/5
      I wish I could have read this book during that hell year of first year university, when I barely passed calculus despite devoting more time to studying it then the other 4 subjects combined (or maybe it just seemed like that -- very long nights in the library, writing out reams of papers of formulae, the table strewn with my hair and tears).
      Now sufficient time has passed and, like childbirth, I forget the pain and remember only those good moments, the eureka! ones.
      This isn't a book for geeks and nerds, coz they already get this stuff. But for the rest of us who might still be curious, it is just as advertised in the blurb.

      One of my favourites was the explanation of the quadratic formula. I learned how to solve it, but never understood "...the cleverness packed into that porcupine of symbols." He says that "The quadratic formula is the Rodney Dangerfield of algebra. Even though it's one of the all-time greats, it don't get no respect." He then goes on to provide and illustrate the history and concept of the equation with elegant passages such as, "The upshot is that x² and 10x are now moving gracefully as a couple, rather than stepping on each other’s toes, by being paired within the single expression (x 5)². That’s what will soon enable us to solve for x."

      And then there's this excerpt from the discussion of π, and infinity to the rescue:
      "What’s so charming about this calculation is the way infinity comes to the rescue. At every finite stage, the scalloped shape looks weird and unpromising. But when you take it to the limit—when you finally get to the wall—it becomes simple and beautiful, and everything becomes clear. That’s how calculus works at its best."
      and
      "This approach is known as the method of exhaustion because of the way it traps the unknown number pi between two known numbers that squeeze it from either side. The bounds tighten with each doubling, thus exhausting the wiggle room for pi."

      This man loves math, and the reader can't help being caught up in the passionate and well-written explanations.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      very basic math book; if you have a decent background in math, you are probably underwhelmed by this. However, I got some really good pointers to other, more involved books
    • 4/5
      According to the preface, this book is "a guided tour through the elements of math, from preschool to grad school, for anyone out there who'd like to have a second chance at the subject." The author also indicates that he he is trying to teach everything "starting with 1+1=2 and going as far as we can." Well, he doesn't quite meet that lofty goal. In reality, the book is a collection of very short essays, each highlighting a different mathematical concept or formula. The essays are fun, accessible and interesting, and illustrated with helpful diagrams. There were a few instances where I wasn't able to understand the nuts and bolts of a formula, but I could still understand his explanation of the concept. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the mysteries of math, served up in bite-sized pieces. Best of all, he references The Housekeeper and the Professor in chapter 2.
    • 4/5
      The book is aptly named. It was a joy to revisit the math I was taught, but didn't understand, but really wanted to, and struggled. If textbooks would be replaced by books such as this, darnit, grades would go up, in my humble opinion. The author discusses the material with the reader, holds his hand, attacks issues from several angles, and moves on before it becomes overbearing. Now isn't that a more fruitful educational experience? I loved the refresher, and I'm looking forward to having a better grasp when I need to help my kids with their homework math problems. Algebra is SO important.
    • 2/5
      Interesting, well written, non-fiction Math book showing us the history, connections and joys of math. I appreciated that the book The solitude of Prime Numbers was mentioned.
    • 4/5
      There is a widespread belief that people can either understand mathematics readily or simply have no idea about it at all - that there is no middle ground. This appealing book seeks to dispel that myth, and to show how much fun can be had with mathematics and even simple arithmetical puzzles.I consider myself fairly adept at mathematics, and was fortunate enough to have had some very good maths teachers from an early age which helped to consolidate whatever natural aptitude I might have had. Right from the age of four my fellow classmates and I in the little village school we attended would have to chant our tables for an hour in the morning, and we were introduced to the joys of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division very shortly thereafter. I now work for the Department for Education for England where one of the recent Ministers had a similar introduction to the basics of calculation which had led him to develop a minor obsession with long division. His position gave him the opportunity to meet several senior figures from the Science Community (meetings on which I was occasionally privileged to sit in), including Sir Paul Nurse, President of The Royal Society (the world's oldest Scientific Association), all of whom he would quiz about their first introductions to long division.Steven Strogatz demonstrates how easily subjects such as long division might be broached, and shows some useful pointers to didactic methods that might soften the blow for both pupil and teacher. He also shows how readily we lose our grip on logic when faced with relatively simple arithmetical problems, particularly when posed through words rather than numbers, and he devotes a couple of short chapters to deconstructing some of the old fashioned problems that i certainly remember being set more than forty years ago, of the "If it takes one man half an hour to ..." variety.All in all a most enjoyable, diverting and informative book.
    • 4/5
      This was a wonderful and interesting book to read. It answered many questions that I never asked, but wanted to. So, read it. You will enjoy it..
    • 3/5
      I was a math major in college. I chose it for a major because the concepts of numbers and the relationships in the study of number theory fascinated me. Strictly speaking, I never had a job where I had to do any higher math, solve a quadratic equation, discuss or teach functions, trig, geometry, etc. But it did strengthen my ability to reason, look at ideas in the abstract and conceptualize a problem in real terms. It certainly helped me a lot in working with software development in one of my previous careers. I was absolutely thrilled when I got a copy of Strogatz' book. He explains math to the non-math mind in easy to understand tidbits. I often wished I could explain things as easily. This is a book that progresses from simple number theory, e.g., what do we mean when we say we have six of something? to basic arithmetical operations (adding, subtracting, multiplication, division) to discussions of fractions, and percentages. There are chapters explaining basic algebra, and how often we use the theory of solving for X without even realizing it. Next up is Geometry, the theory of infinity, negative numbers--Strogatz covers them all and then marches through integral calculus (here it started to get a bit more difficult ----just like college!!), differential equations, and vector analysis.The later chapters are definitely more advanced, but if you manage to stick it out that far, you'll be rewarded with an esoteric but lilting discussion of number theory. While the author would like to think this is not rocket science, it is still deep and requires attention and interest. It should help many motivated adults in understanding what children are now being taught in school, but I'm not sure it will make math aficionados of those who don't want to get it. It's worth a look for anyone who wants to get a better grasp of what the glorious world of numbers is really all about.
    • 4/5
      This is an enjoyable tour of math, clearly written with lots of detailed footnotes for anyone who wants to dig deeper. The author also provides links to some tremendously entertaining websites and YouTube videos that can keep you educated and entertained long after you finish reading.