200 Percent of Nothing

by Dewdney, A. K.

• ISBN13: 9780471577768
• ISBN10: 0471577766
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-05-01
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc

Summary

Acclaim for "In today's world, 'innumeracy' is an even greater danger than illiteracy, and is perhaps even more common. Advertisers and politicians exploit it; intellectuals (self-styled) even flaunt it. I hope that this wise and witty book will provide cures where they are possible, and warnings where they are necessary. "It's also a lot of fun. I can guarantee that 100%."--Arthur C. Clarke "Dewdney retells with charm and wit magnificent morsels of mathematical mayhem discovered by his army of volunteer 'abuse detectives.' From 'sample trashing' to 'numerical terrorism,' from 'percentage pumping' to 'dimensional dementia,' 200% of Nothing plumbs the depths of innumeracy in daily life and reveals what ordinary people can do about it. A rich, readable, instructive, and persuasive book."--Lynn Arthur Steen, Professor of Mathematics, St. Olaf College

Author Biography

A. K. Dewdney, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Western Ontario. Well known for his popular "Mathematical Recreations" column, which ran in Scientific American for more than eight years, he is also the author of several books, including The Armchair Universe and The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(2)
Innumeracy and Math Abuse	3	(20)
Statistics and Damned Lies	23	(20)
The Mathematics of Advertising	43	(11)
Intelligent Dice	54	(16)
The Law of Zero Return	70	(15)
Caveat Emptor	85	(10)
The Government Figures	95	(14)
Living With Risk	109	(12)
Gee-Whiz Media Math	121	(11)
The Tip of the Iceberg	132	(10)
Everybody is a Mathematician	142	(10)
Street Math	152	(22)
Annotated Bibliography	174	(7)
Acknowledgments: The Abuse Detectives	181