A squared plus b squared equals c squared. Itsounds simple, doesn't it? Yet this familiar expression is a gatewayinto the riotous garden of mathematics, and sends us on a journey ofexploration in the company of two inspired guides, acclaimed authorsRobert and Ellen Kaplan. With wit, verve, and clarity, they trace thelife of the Pythagorean theorem, from ancient Babylon to the present,visiting along the way Leonardo da Vin...

The New York Times called Chances Are, the authors' look at the application of probability in everyday life, a "dizzying, exhilarating ride." In Bozo Sapiens, they take us on a another funhouse journey, exploring the surprising, or alarming, number of ways that humans can make bad judgments and poor decisions. The Kaplans' ability to explain everything from statistics to evolutionary biology in witty, accessible, and anecdotal style will endear this book to reade...

A symbol for what is not there, an emptiness that increases any number it's added to, an inexhaustible and indispensable paradox. As we enter the year 2000, zero is once again making its presence felt. Nothing itself, it makes possible a myriad of calculations. Indeed, without zero mathematics as we know it would not exist. And without mathematics our understanding of the universe would be vastly impoverished. But where did this nothing, this hollow circle, come from? Who created it? And w...

A witty, conversational, and accessible tour of math's profoundest mysteries.Mathematical symbols, for mathematicians, store worlds of meaning, leap continents and centuries. But we need not master symbols to grasp the magnificent abstractions they represent, and to which all art aspires. Through language, anyone can come to delight in the works of mathematical art, which are among our kind's greatest glories.Taking the concept of infinity, in its countless...

A compelling journey through history, mathematics, and philosophy, charting humanitys struggle against randomnessOur lives are played out in the arena of chance. However little we recognize it in our day-to-day existence, we are always riding the odds, seeking out certainty but settling-reluctantly-for likelihood, building our beliefs on the shadowy props of probability. Chances Are is the story of mans millennia-long search for the tools to manage the r...

“In this sparkling narrative, mathematics is indeed set free.” -Michael Shermer, author of The Believing BrainIn classrooms around the world, Robert and Ellen Kaplan's pioneering Math Circle program, begun at Harvard, has introduced students ages six to sixty to the pleasures of mathematics, exploring topics that range from Roman numerals to quantum mechanics.In Out of the Labyrinth, the Kaplans reveal the secrets of their highly successful approac...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the classroom to the courtroom and from financial markets to supermarkets, an intriguing and illuminating look at how randomness, chance, and probability affect our daily lives that will intrigue, awe, and inspire.“Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists.... The result is a readable crash course in randomness.” —The New York Times Book Review**With the born storyteller's co...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this “ambitious and challenging” (The New York Review of Books) work, the bestselling author of Monsoon and Balkan Ghosts offers a revelatory prism through which to view global upheavals and to understand what lies ahead for continents and countries around the world.In The Revenge of Geography, Robert D. Kaplan builds on the insights, discoveries, and theories of great geographers and geopo...

The popular scientist explains the marvels and mysteries of evolution in this "fun to read and easy to absorb" New York Times bestseller ( The Washington Post).Evolution is one of the most powerful and important ideas ever developed in the history of science. Every question it raises leads to new answers, new discoveries, and new smarter questions. The science of evolution is as expansive as nature itself. It is also the most meaningful creation st...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania“Both terrifying and enthralling.”—Entertainment Weekly“Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.”—NPR“Thoroughly engrossing.”—George R.R. MartinOn May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The groundbreaking exploration of probability and uncertainty that explains how to make better predictions in a world drowning in data, from the nation’s foremost political forecaster—updated with insights into the pandemic, journalism today, and pollingOne of The Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Works of Nonfiction of the Year“Could turn out to be one of the more momentous books of the de...

The seventeen equations that form the basis for life as we know it.Most people are familiar with history's great equations: Newton's Law of Gravity, for instance, or Einstein's theory of relativity. But the way these mathematical breakthroughs have contributed to human progress is seldom appreciated. In In Pursuit of the Unknown, celebrated mathematician Ian Stewart untangles the roots of our most important mathematical statements to show that equations ha...