Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

Matt Parker

4.12 · Rating details · 11,409 ratings · 1,292 reviews

An international bestseller

The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?"

"Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining, Humble Pi is a charming and very readable guide to some of humanity's all-time greatest miscalculations--that also gives you permission to feel a little better ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 314 pages

Published March 7th 2019 by Allen Lane

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Humble Pi, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals ... by Caitlin Doughty

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Stephen Brusatte

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

[ATY 2021] - Nonfiction That's Not A Memoir or Biography

935 books — 132 voters

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Popsugar 2020 - A Book with a Pun in the Title

202 books — 175 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.12 ·

Rating details

· 11,409 ratings · 1,292 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

Jun 11, 2020 Yun rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Humble Pi takes us on a tour of the times when math, engineering, and programming have gone wrong, leading to disastrous or sometimes just funny results. The book covers a range of mistakes, including bridge failures, space exploration disasters, game show cheats, financial algorithms gone rogue, and so much more.

I pretty much loved this book from start to finish. I found it thoroughly fascinating and often hilarious. Parker has a great way with explaining technical subjects, distilling it down ...more

flag 148 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2019 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ rated it it was amazing

Turns out that pi's not as humble as one could imagine. That many people actually did die as a result of many of the errors is tragic and definitely takes most of fun from the comedy. The unfortunate book name aside, it's a magnificent read into how maths go bump in everywhere.

Q:
‘Plaintiff’s insistence that the commercial appears to be a serious offer requires the Court to explain why the commercial is funny. Explaining why a joke is funny is a daunting task.’ (c)
Q:
I went with my favourite metho ...more

flag 63 likes · Like · see review

Jul 10, 2021 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: education, maths

There is an Australian word that is used to describe people that is affectionate, but when you learn its etymology, you wonder how it possibly ever could have come to common use. It is to be called a dag, or more likely, a bit of a dag. It isn’t exactly a compliment, but it almost always implies a fondness for the person being spoken about. You know, if in context you call someone ‘a bit of a dag’ you would not be likely to get into a fight – whereas, if you called them a shit-head or a total-tu There is an Australian word that is used to describe people that is affectionate, but when you learn its etymology, you wonder how it possibly ever could have come to common use. It is to be called a dag, or more likely, a bit of a dag. It isn’t exactly a compliment, but it almost always implies a fondness for the person being spoken about. You know, if in context you call someone ‘a bit of a dag’ you would not be likely to get into a fight – whereas, if you called them a shit-head or a total-turd or a prick, you really might. The thing is that a dag is a piece of shit that hangs from the wool around a sheep’s bum. Like I said, you couldn’t say being called a dag is a compliment, but it isn't really an insult either. I say all of this because this guy was born in Western Australia and, well, he's a bit of a dag. Oh, and by the way, I’m typing this in Microsoft Word using the Australian English dictionary and I have to say it amuses me very much indeed that ‘dag’ has a red squiggly line under it informing me that I’ve made a spelling mistake. Australian English, indeed.

There is a point in this book where the author started a campaign to have the soccer ball depicted on signs in England changed to ensure that it was not made up only of hexagons, but also included pentagons. He explained that if all of the segments in the ball were hexagons you couldn’t make it into a ball. Now, look, I get it – he’s a maths guy, and so getting it right is important to him – but sometimes you need to move on. It’s a bit like a meme I saw early in the pandemic showing right angle triangles with all sides being 1.5 metres, and then Hawking and deGrasse Tyson holding back Pythagoras who was ready for a fight. My all-time favourite of these things is the fact that it is impossible to see a cube in real life in the way we have all been taught to draw one, with a square on the top of the cube and two sides also being squares. You can get upset about these things, but 2-d representations of 3-d phenomena are, well, you know, 2-d.

Quite a lot of this book discusses mistakes a bit like that. But other mistakes are much more consequential – you know, the sort of mistakes that make planes fall out of the sky. What is really interesting with these things is that those mistakes can be quite difficult to make. Not that you have to really try to make them, or put in lots of effort, the mistakes come easily enough, but a whole lot of things need to go very wrong for some mistakes to happen – that is the lovely thing about this book, it is quite forgiving of those who make mistakes – given that that is all of us, just about all of the time. His point isn’t to point and laugh, but rather to explain that any system based on the assumption that no one would be damn stupid enough to make that particular mistake has been designed to fail. In many of the stories here you might find yourself feeling rather smug – but as they say in the classics, ‘pride comes before a fall’ and ‘there but for the grace of God go I…’ It is really worth while keeping those little quotes in mind here.

The metaphor he uses at the end of this is hot Swiss cheese, but I preferred the straight Swiss cheese one used earlier – that is, there are always holes, you need to make sure that the holes in your defences don't all line up. We probably can’t make sure of that, ultimately, but setting that as your life’s goal is a worthwhile thing to do. If you are smart, the challenge is to create something that will be as close to foolproof as you can, rather than blaming people afterwards for not using it properly.

Right at the end of this there is a quote from him that has ended up being used in mathematics classrooms by teachers – and I love it to bits. It is, “Mathematicians aren’t people who find maths easy; they’re people who enjoy how hard it is”. Isn’t that the best thing you’ve read today? One of the things that always annoys me is that so many people seem to understand some things about sport that they never seem to connect with intellectual effort. One is that no matter how good you are at a sport, you still need to practice. And that if you want to be really good, you have to practice a lot. If I was to wear a ‘I’m too intelligent to play football’ t-shirt, I would, rightly enough, I guess, be considered grossly insulting. But I have seen a ‘I’m too pretty for maths’ t-shirt. The effort required to be good at any skill is almost always actually the point – but too many people seem to think that a skill needs to be 100% innate or it isn’t a real skill.

The other connection to sport is that you can be the best at your sport that has ever been, and you will still fail over and over again. Don Bradman’s last score in a test match was a duck. Michael Jordan once said, ‘I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career’. Yeah, he probably ought to have just given up, he clearly didn’t have any natural talent for that shit. The thing is that people give up on mathematics for far less. I’ve actually a negative interest in sport, zero being far too large a number to fully encompass my boredom – but I find it remarkable that people are so much more likely to give up on things that are really worthwhile, but would ‘never say die’ for shit that doesn't matter at all.

Anyway, I distract myself – while it is worth reading this book if only to see the near endless number of ways we can stuff things up, there are other joys involved here. Some of the stories read like jokes – in the sense that you know there is going to be a punchline coming soon, and so you try to guess it before it comes. Sometimes the punchline will come and then he will explain that the punchline was actually only one of the things that needed to go wrong for the whole thing to come crashing down. He also explains that sometimes stuff ups are necessary, rather than just tragic accidents. Progress in science and engineering often involves someone needing to go beyond the cutting edge, on to the bleeding edge. But to boldly go where no one has gone before is risky business. Not all mistakes are stuff-ups, sometimes they are a necessary consequence of being first. ...more

flag 63 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2020 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

A delightful, funny, and low stakes way to enjoy the world of “maths.” Chock full of errors—ranging from program bugs to engineering mishaps to faulty Excel formulas to weird rounding mistakes—in Humble Pi, Matt Parker introduces the kind of math mistakes that can afflict the hoi polloi and rankle the experts too!

Matt Parker’s narration of the audiobook made this one even more fun to listen to. I found plenty of humor in his very drawn out rendition of “0.00000000000000000000000000167.” There ar A delightful, funny, and low stakes way to enjoy the world of “maths.” Chock full of errors—ranging from program bugs to engineering mishaps to faulty Excel formulas to weird rounding mistakes—in Humble Pi, Matt Parker introduces the kind of math mistakes that can afflict the hoi polloi and rankle the experts too!

Matt Parker’s narration of the audiobook made this one even more fun to listen to. I found plenty of humor in his very drawn out rendition of “0.00000000000000000000000000167.” There are bountiful opportunities for him to narrate very large and tiny numbers without using scientific notation, and I personally found this fun. For all those who (realistically) would be annoyed rather than gently amused, I would probably pick up the hard copy instead.

Each chapter houses its own topic that is largely unrelated from one to the next, and various pieces of trivia are launched with Parker’s witty commentary for some interesting discussion. For example, computers using a signed 32-bit counting system to track time will no longer be able to 2,147,483,647 seconds later from the start of 1970 (at which point in 2038, who knows whether the world will have fully chucked out computers for ~~phones~~ tinier gadgets). Or based on the Affordable Care Act’s 3x maximum cap on older individuals’ insurance premiums, the Trump Administration tried to argue that older customers could be charged 3.49x as much. Yunno, because 3.49 ‘rounds down’ to 3. That failed, but yeah, nice try.

Doing math can often be in turns maddening or tiresome. For the average folk, we never fully manage to put a finger on the utility of an integral or the need to prove that an isosceles triangle has two same sides (can’t I just believe it, 8th grade Geometry teacher!?!!?). But for all the chuckles we can derive from laughing at silly mistakes, Matt Parker shows the rampant fallibility in our application of maths, hounding the gambler to the government official to the bridge engineer and certainly to us. Careful counting matters more than ever right now, and we should be wary of math errors—at the very least, Humble Pi offers a useful distraction to seeing numbers other than that everlasting tally for the election. ...more

flag 34 likes · Like · see review

May 26, 2019 Tgv rated it it was ok

Summary: not very interesting, and it's not about maths errors.

This book is a collection of anecdotes that you can read anywhere: most of them I had read before, and you can find them on the internet, too. They're bundled by theme here, which is convenient, but the writer tries too hard to make them appear connected, and more often than not that results in uninspired paragraphs. Here's an example from a random page:

"But what happens when computers try to divide by zero? Unless they've been expli ...more

flag 26 likes · Like · see review

Mar 21, 2022 K.J. Charles added it

Shelves: non-fiction, science, maths

Entertaining non fic with plenty of stries of maths going wrong in the real world. You know the sort of thing: makes excellent airplane reading except for the number of stories involving airplane crashes. Highly readable and lots of good jokes.

flag 24 likes · Like · see review

Sep 06, 2021 HBalikov rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is billed as a book about when theory bumps up against the real world. I found it more about when the wrong mathematics is chosen rather than when mathematics is done wrongly.

There are plenty of examples to amuse, shock and confound. There is one section called “If the Data Fits” that I will note specifically. Parker is making an important point about how the advent of the computer would make data-processing so much easier. He uses as an example how the U.S. Air Force tried in the 1950s to ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Feb 15, 2020 Eilonwy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I really enjoyed this book!

I'm one of those people who got labelled "bad at math" at a young age because I struggled with arithmetic (and still do). That resulted in my getting handed a lot of books of "math is fun!" type puzzles when I was a kid, which were definitely much more fun than math class. I learned to differentiate "math" from "arithmetic" and stubbornly took math classes up through calculus, which was fascinating, but which I've sadly never had any occasion to put to use. To make th ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Apr 05, 2021 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology, mathematics, audiobook

This is a marvelous book about all the ways that math errors can infiltrate our day-to-day living. Some of the math errors are just fun (as in older arcade games), while others have life-or-death consequences (like airplanes running out of fuel mid-flight).

Some of the math errors are simply a confusion about units; feet/meters, pounds/kilograms, and so on. One such error was when a jet liner was loaded up with fuel in pounds, instead of kilograms. Luckily, there was a mid-flight landing and refu ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Nov 27, 2018 Mark Loughridge rated it liked it · review of another edition

I love maths. I enjoy finding out about mathematical and statistical errors. I was thinking some of my maths teacher friends might enjoy it and find it useful for illustrations in class. Thats where the plot breaks down a little.

I enjoyed the book but was a little disappointed that so much was taken from fields of computing and engineering, where the issue wasn't strictly a mathematical failure, but a failure, for example, to understand the limits of binary, or load-bearing, or resonant frequenc ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Apr 03, 2019 Ed rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, maths

Knew I was going to love this book when I opened it and immediately saw the page numbers going the wrong way.
It is a lot of fun the whole way through. Parker takes us through some of his favourite, or some of the more noteworthy, cases of maths going wrong across a variety of applications. We're talking engineering and computing, from bridges to spacecraft to calendars to ancient sumerian tablets. His enthusiam shines brightly through, and it's hard to not be infected by it. His writing is infus ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Mar 18, 2019 Brian Clegg rated it really liked it

Matt Parker had me thoroughly enjoying this collection of situations where maths and numbers go wrong in everyday life. I think the book's title is a little weak - 'Humble Pi' doesn't really convey what it's about, but that subtitle 'a comedy of maths errors' is far more informative.

With his delightful conversational style, honed in his stand-up maths shows, it feels as if Parker is a friend down the pub, relating the story of some technical disaster driven by maths and computing, or regaling us Matt Parker had me thoroughly enjoying this collection of situations where maths and numbers go wrong in everyday life. I think the book's title is a little weak - 'Humble Pi' doesn't really convey what it's about, but that subtitle 'a comedy of maths errors' is far more informative.

With his delightful conversational style, honed in his stand-up maths shows, it feels as if Parker is a friend down the pub, relating the story of some technical disaster driven by maths and computing, or regaling us with a numerical cock-up. These range from the spectacular - wobbling and collapsing bridges, for example - to the small but beautifully formed, such as Excel's rounding errors.

Sometimes it's Parker's little asides that are particularly attractive. I loved his rant on why phone numbers aren't numbers at all (would it be meaningful for someone to ask you what half your phone number is?). We discover the trials and tribulations of getting calendars right, explore some of the oddities of probability, enjoy a bit of impossible geometry and see how getting units right (or wrong) can make all the difference. Of course there are the big stories, from NASA disasters to the risks of trying to crash onboard systems on planes mid-flight. But it's often those little details like the phone numbers that tickled me. I loved, for example, Parker's attempts to get the footballs on UK signs geometrically correct - totally misunderstood by the bureaucracy - or when Parker points out the problems of graphics featuring multiple cogs interlocked with each other in a way that will lock them solid - not to mention his combinatorial struggles with the McDonald's McChoice menu.

The only thing I did find - and this is the only reason the book doesn't get five stars - is that the final couple of chapters seemed a little samey. Rather than save the best to last, Parker resorts to revisiting rather familiar feeling computer problems, which are interesting (but perhaps more to me, with a background in computing, than many readers), but by now not quite as original and fresh feeling.

However, this is an excellent read, managing to be light and meaty at the same time, and highly recommended for anyone interested in maths, business or computing. ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2020 Steve rated it liked it

Shelves: popular-science

A Christmas present book from a relative in recognition of my past technical career.
Each chapter a nugget of information about some ‘maths’ error that has caused us problems in everyday life. I put ‘maths’ in inverted commas as many of the issues may be a poor engineering implementation of some analysis. As each chapter is independent of others it’s easy to dip in and out of the book when one fancies light relief from the more serious business of reading fiction!

Not normally a book I’d review on A Christmas present book from a relative in recognition of my past technical career.
Each chapter a nugget of information about some ‘maths’ error that has caused us problems in everyday life. I put ‘maths’ in inverted commas as many of the issues may be a poor engineering implementation of some analysis. As each chapter is independent of others it’s easy to dip in and out of the book when one fancies light relief from the more serious business of reading fiction!

Not normally a book I’d review on here. I don’t go for popular science of this type, anecdotal though informed, commentary on technical mistakes. I’ve found that in the modern era many science bloggers online can provide up to date light or serious reviews of technical problems in a digestible and easy to understand form. Books on the same topic seem to me too frozen when a lively discussion online, something interactive, is often a better way to understand the problem. Just my view though.

This book is better than most popular ‘wow, isn’t that silly scientists did this’ books. About half of the chapters I did find genuinely interesting (eg how clocks in computer operating systems can be designed to count down from some very high number on the assumption that time zero will be well beyond the expected operating life of the system - guess what?!). Some, such as how numbers placed in spreadsheets in a text format can lead to errors interpreting spreadsheet outputs, had me yawning! But if you’re prepared to ditch out of chapters quickly that you don’t enjoy and move onto the next it’s generally an interesting read.

I think the author has great talent for popularising some difficult science and maths concepts (he does well with probability) and he’s easy to read but it’d be better to see it used for one grand concept in a book rather than this mish mash of the interesting and mundane. I know it’ll be a matter of a reader’s interests but about half of the book covered topics I regarded as dull, so you’ll need to work to find the ones that interest you.

If you get it as a present then worth a read but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it for a purchase, if you want an interesting popular science read. ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Jul 18, 2021 Audrey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reader-s-choice, 2021-books, non-fiction, humor-satire-goofy

This is a book for nerds: math, science, and engineering nerds. I loved it. I was mesmerized.

Mr. Parker examines the relationship humans have with math and what happens when we mess up. The mistakes he describes are fascinating in how they came about. He doesn’t seek to shame anyone. He has an attitude that we all make mistakes and we’re all in this together. A lot of the mistakes are in programming code. He covers calendars and timekeeping, probability, randomness, the effects of rounding, and ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Apr 23, 2020 Emma Bostian rated it it was amazing

This was one of the most highly entertaining books I’ve ever read. Whitty and easily digestable I would recommend this to anyone remotely interested in math or engineering.

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2020 Ajay Sambhriya rated it it was ok

Shelves: 08-mathematics, 001

I have no idea why this book has the average rating of 4.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 06, 2019 TraceyL rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Lots of interesting anecdotes. Sometimes the math and science explanations went over my head. Quite funny.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 26, 2020 G V Sandeep rated it it was amazing

Was a fun read. Amazed and shocked to see the consequences of mathematical errors.
A collection of Engineering Bloopers

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2020 Ericka Clou rated it really liked it

Shelves: technology, 0-borrowed, read-nonfiction, science, 2010s, mathematics, architecture

I was getting ready to give this book 3 stars at the beginning but as I went on I realized that some of these math mental hurdles are driving the covid spread. For starters, many Governors, even 11 months in seem fundamentally unaware of how exponential growth works which is the underlying prediction threat of covid growth. Additionally, most people have very little familiarity with even the basics of how statistics work, useful in understanding all types of science research, for example in vacc ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 27, 2022 Edward Wilsher rated it it was amazing

This is not a typical book or genre that I usually go for but I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. For some like me who enjoys maths (and it's pitfalls), this is a great book explained to a level where you only need a basic knowledge of mathematics to understand all the information presented. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2021 Iain rated it liked it · review of another edition

Looking for a laugh I picked this up, and it did the job. A lot of the maths and computer coding went way over my head, but the real life examples of things going wrong were frequently funny and/or scary. The denser bits dragged a little, but overall enjoyable.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 20, 2020 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, public-library

I am not a math person, but I read a really nice write up of this and decided to give it a try from the local library. One of my quarantine changes is that I now have a dedicated reading hour each morning with my daughter. When she went to school in person, her school practiced this post lunch and suggested incorporating it into her school at home schedule. I mention this specifically, because to be honest, in a pre-COVID-19 world, I would have 100% thought about finishing this, but never done i ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 30, 2019 Dmitry rated it really liked it

Collection of anecdotes, some of which I knew, but the bulk of them I did not. Explanations for "uninitiated" are neither long-winded nor tedious, stories are quite interesting, and I found that the book flows really well. Can recommend ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2020 Craig Fiebig rated it really liked it

What if one-third of all spreadsheets included at least one formulaic error? What if the reason the shuttle crashed was not narrowly due to brittle o-rings but because the estimates of reliability themselves were fundamentally flawed? Parker takes the reader on a fun tour of our societal reliance on robust arithmetic ("maths" in his quaintly Queen's own rendition) and the degree to which our 'maths' are riddled with error. Although his search for humor tends toward trying too hard the work reall ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 09, 2019 Purnesh Tripathi rated it it was amazing

Humble Pi is a brilliant piece of writing which will make you laugh at least once on every page. Matt is a mathematician and you can easily tell that even if you don't have much background about him, by his style of writing.

The book's 11th Chapter in particular was so breathtakingly gripping, that I finished it in one go. Even the other parts of the book read like an epic collection of short stories, each of which, combined with excellent writing skills, provide for am exhilerating experience.

Di ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2020 Sergiu rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2020, savage-book-club

2.5

Contains fascinating stories but also chapters that are simply boring. Mostly disliked those which explain how computers work, what binary code is, how overflows happen. Going through these parts left me thinking I could be spending my time on better books instead.

Humorous at times (actually laughed out loud at the part where one architect designed the same flaw twice in different buildings). However, many of the jokes seem forced and don't match my taste. All throughout the book I felt more ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 24, 2020 Mara rated it it was amazing

If you are a geek into maths and programming, you will love this book. If you are not, you will love this book. Mathematics was not my favourite subject in school, but this book is very educative and also quite funny. Through his maths errors stories, Matt Parker makes you give algorithms, formulas and binary code a second chance and appreciate their roles in all aspects of our lives.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 28, 2019 Girish rated it really liked it

Not so much a comedy since most errors ended up as tragedy. And yet, it is an important book to be written - what with mushrooming engineering colleges churning out supposed engineers every year!

The author doesn't dumb it down and hence some of the places are tough to comprehend. At the same time, the errors which were non-tragic and even funny (like Gandhi going all nuclear thanks to math error) were explained with so much passion that make your trivia quotient.

Some of the concepts were high sc ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2022 Moonkiszt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adults-authors-explaining-stuff, big-opinioning, learned_me, we-don-t-know-what-we-think-we-know, education-teach-practice-consider-p, inventions-come-from-long-thoughts, world-events-inspiriting, world-events-shattering, dontfreakout, mathing-included

It's always affirming to know that one's mistakes, birthed and out there in the world, are not alone. They are even dinky next to some of the larger, more conspicuous errors. Matt Parker has authored a book which ensures all the world should be aware and take note of some of these missteps.

Many, many examples which have probably escaped us, and the author is pleased to serve it to us. He can get a little pendantic, but is self-aware and backtracks, so for the most part I enjoyed this read, heart ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2020 Cameron Aird rated it it was amazing

Matt Parker is an Australian mathematician, author and comedian. A former maths teacher, he has made a living for himself popularising maths tours and videos in real life and online. He has previously written one book on the topic of mathematics, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, as well as co-writing Hacking the Kinect.

The book of his I will be reviewing is non-fiction, Humble Pi, A Comedy of Maths Errors, published in 2019. The book focuses on many mistakes in real life consequen Matt Parker is an Australian mathematician, author and comedian. A former maths teacher, he has made a living for himself popularising maths tours and videos in real life and online. He has previously written one book on the topic of mathematics, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, as well as co-writing Hacking the Kinect.

The book of his I will be reviewing is non-fiction, Humble Pi, A Comedy of Maths Errors, published in 2019. The book focuses on many mistakes in real life consequence of bad mathematics in an interesting and often comedic way. It explores the relationship between the human brain and its ability to process and handle the complex processes of modern day mathematics. While cheeky and childish at times, the book also dwells into a more serious point of views in which the consequences of poorly done calculations can result in drastic cases of enormous economic loss and fatal accidents. Many themes are brought up throughout the book, many of which expand beyond the literal confines of mathematics.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Some of its most likeable characteristics included humour, jest and larrikin, which provided a warm contrast to some of the darker themes brought up in the read. It can become slightly complicated in some areas, and some advanced mathematical knowledge may be required for some readers. I sometimes struggled to get my head around some of the topics provided in the book. However, I don’t think this will stop most people from turning away from this book. Most of the time it is an easy to read, lightweight book that takes the reader on an enjoyable ride around the world of mathematics.

One of the very many potent themes in this book is the claim that maths is ignored or disregarded in everyday life and there is a significant disrespect from those who believe maths is unimportant. Parker exclaims “My main point was that there is a general feeling in society that maths is not that important; that it’s okay not to be good at it. But so much of our economy and technology requires people who are good at maths.” Parker presents an interesting idea to explore about the relationship between society and maths. The idea that when maths is quickly pushed aside as inessential or inconsequential, it creates a message in society that it doesn’t provide any meaningful contribution in everyday life. Even as young as primary school, students wonder how maths will be of use of them in the future. And for years 11 & 12 at my school, english is compulsory while mathematics is not. Parker amplifies this idea as well by incorporating real life consequences in his book. He reports “Both mistakes together resulted in the deaths of 114 people...The vast majority of the time, people cross bridges and walk across walkways blissfully unaware of how much engineering has gone into making it possible. We only really notice when it goes wrong.” This quote is on a more serious level to the previous one, as it includes a real life consequence of maths errors. The mathematics error responsible for the deaths of 114 in the Kansas Hyatt Walkway Collapse in 1981 was the result of a simple one extra nut added to each of the walkway beams. Parker includes this example to show the reader real issues with bad mathematics, and how a more concrete understanding of it could greatly improve safety in the areas of industrial physics and maths.

I would recommend this book to anyone that has even a mild passion for mathematics. It does a tremendous job at exploring a wide range of mathematical quandaries, and suggesting ways they could have been improved. It takes the reader on a journey through time and space to events and experiences I thought not possible to be communicated through the written word. It takes you all around the world, to famous locations and events to exploit mathematical errors, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and some of NASA’s failed projects. Overall, I think it is a very good book, 9/10.
...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Play Book Tag: Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World; 5 Stars	2	12	Jun 18, 2021 02:43PM
Goodreads Librari...: please add book cover	2	10	Feb 21, 2021 07:27PM
Goodreads Librari...: Please set page number	3	49	Apr 14, 2019 01:41AM
Author	1	13	Mar 18, 2019 07:49AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Nonfiction

649 users

Science

379 users

Science > Mathematics

173 users

Humor

93 users

History

45 users

Audiobook

43 users

Science > Popular Science

31 users

Science > Technology

23 users

Science > Engineering

18 users

Humor > Comedy

18 users

See top shelves…

About Matt Parker

Matt Parker

287 followers

Matt Parker is a former maths teacher who communicates about mathematics via YouTube videos, stand-up comedy, and books.

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Books by Matt Parker

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension

The Maths Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

More…

Articles featuring this book

Goodreads Employees Share Their Summer Reading Plans

When you work at Goodreads, it's pretty tough to keep that Want to Read shelf under control. (And let's be honest, most of us don't even...

Trivia About Humble Pi: A Come...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Humble Pi: A Come...

“There is always the chance that something else is influencing the data, causing the link. Between 1993 and 2008 the police in Germany were searching for the mysterious ‘phantom of Heilbronn’, a woman who had been linked to forty crimes, including six murders; her DNA had been found at all the crime scenes. Tens of thousands of police hours were spent looking for Germany’s ‘most dangerous woman’ and there was a €300,000 bounty on her head. It turns out she was a woman who worked in the factory that made the cotton swabs used to collect DNA evidence.” — 9 likes

“In February 2007, six F-22s were flying from Hawaii to Japan when all their systems crashed at once. All navigation systems went offline, the fuel systems went, and even some of the communication systems were out. This was not triggered by an enemy attack or clever sabotage. The aircraft had merely flown over the International Date Line.” — 2 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — Humble Pi by Matt Parker

Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Matt Parker

Books by Matt Parker

Articles featuring this book

Trivia About Humble Pi: A Come...

Quotes from Humble Pi: A Come...

See a Problem?

Preview — Humble Pi by Matt Parker

Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Matt Parker

Books by Matt Parker

Articles featuring this book

Trivia About Humble Pi: A Come...

Quotes from Humble Pi: A Come...

new topic
Discuss This Book