How Long is a Piece of String?
This splendid little book is the authors' second compilation of everyday maths. I’m usually suspicious of popular maths books, but this has plenty of thought-provoking ideas, presented in such an interesting way that I found it hard to put down. The book does contain equations where these are useful, and the cartoon illustrations are often very informative. Let me whet your appetite a little.
Lifts: “The logic used to drive lifts has become increasingly sophisticated, not only to reduce the waiting time, but also to prevent some of that peculiar behaviour where the machine seems to have a mind of its own.” I think we’ve all been there! After reading this fascinating chapter on how lift systems are designed, I think I might devise a lift game and write an Excel simulation.
Taxis: How are fares calculated? Now I’m sure that even if you know everything else, you don’t know this. Even more amazingly, in all probability, neither does the cab driver. Can you answer this question?
If your journey today diverts around some back streets, adding a few hundred yards to the journey, but takes exactly the same time as yesterday’s, is your fare:
(a) more than yesterday’s?
(b) less than yesterday’s?
(c) the same as yesterday’s?
The answer turns out to be ‘possibly’, and yet it is all very mathematical. You’ll have to read the chapter to find out why you were right.
Romance: Have you ever wanted to run a dating agency, or meet the perfect partner? This chapter is more fun than speed dating. You will also get advice on whether you should settle for the first ‘good enough’ partner to come along, or hang on for a better one.
Karaoke: I’ve also discovered why my voice sounds so bad - to others. And it is not entirely my fault. There are other cultures that have completely different musical scales to the 12 notes of the Western scale, so there may be an island somewhere where I sound “as mellifluous as a bird”.
Spin Doctoring: We all know that statistics are pretty flexible, but now I understand why the £19 billion increase in spending on schools announced in 1998 (when spending at the time was £38 billion, so what a whopping increase) actually represented £9.5 billion spread over three years (not taking into account inflation).
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ billion | 38 | 41 | 44.5 | 47.5 | |
| +3 | +6.5 | +10 | Total +19.5! |
A truly amazing bit of spin, that got me working out that rearranging the yearly increases could make this £9.5 billion become an apparent £26.5 billion increase. Can you beat this?
To quote the authors: A lot of maths is extremely difficult, but most of the maths needed for everyday life is not. Maths can stimulate curiosity, it can answer those questions that bug us all the time, it can prevent us from being conned, defrauded, misled and otherwise ripped off. There is nothing that spin doctors would like more that a generally innumerate society… With mathematics, it is possible to fight back.
Jill Russell, Supply Teacher in Kent
How Long is a Piece of String? - Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham
Robson Books
ISBN 1 86105 625 7
Price £6.99
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