A mathematician reads the newspaper

In this book, John Allen Paulos continues his liberating campaign against mathematical illiteracy.

Although a lover of newspapers, he recognizes that they do not give us the truth in black or white.

Whatever they tell us about health scares or racial quotas, voting patterns or DNA testing, this book argues that it is certain to be simplified.

Chaos theory, for example, reveals why it is pointless to predict economic or environmental trends.This series of essays takes the reader through an imaginary newspaper - from politics and business to arts and sports - and looks at the ways in which we use maths, roaming through such mathematical and scientific issues as probability, chaos theory, paradox, game theories and their bearing on our everyday existence.