From the Back Cover
From uncanny movie dinosaurs to the loopy physics of the triple axel, Keith Devlin's vibrantly illustrated book illuminates the mathematics inherent in every human endeavor.
"A beautiful book . . . the aim is not to teach but to entertain, and it succeeds. The view that mathematics is dull is replaced by an image of how math can be both interesting and useful, if not all-powerful."— New Scientist.
"A colorful and exciting introduction to the ways in which mathematics can help Ýus¨ to under-stand phenomena. ÝDevlin¨ presents fascinating real-world problems posed by real people and shows how mathematics is used to solve them."— Choice.
"Not in many, many years have I seen a book nearly as instructive and enlightening about the beauty of mathematics. Life by the Numbers is superb."— Amir Aczel, author of Fermat's Last Theorem.
"This wondrous book reveals how, on the brink of the millennium, wizards are using math to bring movie dinosaurs to life, to improve tennis stars' serves, to win sailboat races, and to probe the eeriest corners of the cosmos. A pleasurable read for adult and young alike."— Keay Davidson, coauthor of Wrinkles in Time.
"A fascinating account of many of the ways in which mathematical ideas find application in the world around us. Keith Devlin is to be congratulated for bringing these ideas so accessibly to the public."— Sir Roger Penrose, author of The Emperor's New Mind.
Dr. Keith Devlin is a mathematician at Stanford University in California. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of the university's H-STAR institute, a co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network, and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He has written 31 books and over 80 published research articles. His books have been awarded the Pythagoras Prize and the Peano Prize, and his writing has earned him the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. In 2003, he was recognized by the California State Assembly for his "innovative work and longtime service in the field of mathematics and its relation to logic and linguistics." He is "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio. (Archived at http: //www.stanford.edu/ kdevlin/MathGuy.html.)
He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition.
He writes a monthly column for the Mathematical Association of America, "Devlin's Angle" http: //www.maa.org/devlin/devangle.html
