Matt Parker

Explore the life-changing magic of trigonometry with Matt Parker, stand-up mathematician and No. 1 bestselling author of Humble Pi. Why can no two people ever see the same rainbow? What happens when you pull a pop song apart into pure sine waves and play it back on a piano? Why does the wake behind a duck always form an angle of exactly 39 degrees? And what did mathematicians have to do with the great pig stampede of 2012? The answer to each of these questions can be found in the triangle. In Love Triangle, stand-up comedian, ex-maths teacher and Sunday Times number one bestselling author Matt Parker is on a mission to prove why we should all show a lot more love for triangles, along with the useful trigonometry and geometry they enable. To make his point, he uses triangles to create his own digital avatar, survive a harrowing motorcycle ride, cut a sandwich into three equal parts, and measure tall buildings while wearing silly shoes. But soon these hare-brained experiments begin to reveal a genuinely important truth: triangles are the hidden pattern beneath the surface of the contemporary world, used in everything from GPS to CGI via Spotify streaming, the play button and your best mate’s triangle tattoo. Join Matt Parker as he demonstrates why there’s more to triangles than Pythagoras and SOHCAHTOA. Triangles are everything and everything is triangles.

Matematika se skrývá úplně za vším. Bez matematiky by nelétala letadla, nefungovaly počítače, neuměli bychom stavět vysoké budovy. A když je něco úplně všude, můžete se spolehnout na jednu věc: je jen otázkou času, kdy někdo udělá pořádný matematický kiks a něco se kvůli tomu pokazí. Matt Parker je matematik, popularizátor vědy, komik a skvělý vypravěč v jedné osobě, což naznačuje, jakou knihu držíte v ruce: zábavný přehled těch největších matematických omylů v dějinách a jejich nepředvídatelných následků. Nudit se rozhodně nebudete: Věděli jste, že kvůli špatně napsané desetinné čárce skoro zkolabovala burza? Že kvůli nesprávnému převodu jednotek muselo nouzově přistát letadlo? A že válečná loď zůstala stát bezmocná uprostřed oceánu, protože někdo zapomněl, že se nesmí dělit nulou? Nebo že olympijští sportovci zmeškali největší závody svého života jen kvůli tomu, že se v jejich zemi používal jiný kalendář? Pokud jste si mysleli, že matematika není zábavná a že se v každodenním životě k ničemu nehodí, tak pozor – tohle je ten největší matematický omyl vašeho života!

**The First Ever Maths Book to be a No.1 Bestseller** 'Wonderful ... superb' Daily Mail What makes a bridge wobble when it's not meant to? Billions of dollars mysteriously vanish into thin air? A building rock when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world. As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths: computer programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works quietly behind the scenes, until ... it doesn't. Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills', but we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical ally. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks, jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.

Most of the time, the maths in our everyday lives works quietly behind the scenes. Until someone forgets to carry a '1' and a bridge collapses, a plane drops out of the sky or a building rocks when its resonant frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap's 1990 hit I've Got The Power. This book is all about what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world. Exploring and explaining a litany of near-misses and mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries and the Roman empire, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us all up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Mathematics doesn't have good 'people skills', but we would all be better off, he argues, if we saw it as a practical ally. By making maths our friend, we can use it to our advantage and learn from its pitfalls.