Figuring It Out

This is a book of mathematical stories — funny and puzzling mathematical stories. They tell of villains who try to steal secrets, heroes who encode their messages, and mathematicians who spend years on end searching for the best way to pile oranges.

There are also stories about highway confusions occurring when the rules of Cartesian geometry are ignored, small-change errors due to ignorance of ancient paradoxes, and mistakes in calendars arising from poor numerical approximations.

This book is about the power and beauty of mathematics. It shows mathematics in action, explained in a way that everybody can understand. It is a book for enticing youngsters and inspiring teachers.

Nuno Crato is a leading science writer and mathematician, whose entertaining essays have won a number of international awards.

From the reviews:

“All people, including professional mathematicians, should read some of the popular works of mathematics. Taking that as a given, this book should be a bestseller within mathematical circles. It contains a set of short essays about mathematics as it is used in the lives of all people. Generally 3–4 pages in length, the essays are easily understood and will either initiate the lay reader into some of the valuable ways mathematics is used or remind professionals just how valuable their field is to society.” (Charles Ashbacher, MAA Reviews, November, 2010)

“Crato’s presentation is to examine how problems, some challenging and of great importance and some of minor consequence yet thought provoking, have been resolved over the centuries. … Impressively, the essays never get bogged down with complicated mathematical formulae, yet they still provide sufficient detail of the human endeavor and mathematical underpinnings involved, allowing the book to be of interest to both the layperson and the advanced expert. Overall, the stories are amusing, intriguing, insightful, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.” (N. W. Schillow, Choice, Vol. 48 (9), May, 2011)

“The present book is about the power and beauty of mathematics. … Nuno Crato … explains things in a way that everybody can follow. Therefore, the book is also directed at school pupils and can inspire teachers. … You can learn interesting details about the life and the research of famous astronomers, mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists … . It is a wonderful book that can help to popularize mathematics and can demonstrate the importance of mathematics in our everyday life.” (Werner H. Schmidt, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1219, 2011)

Nuno Crato is one of the leading science writers in Portugal. He is a professor of Mathematics at the Technca1 University of Lisbon, current president of the Portuguese Mathematical Society, a researcher in stochastic processes, and a well-known science popularizer.

Nuno Crato is the author of several best-selling popular science books and takes a leading role in bringing mathemalics to a wider audience. He is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines and author of radio and TV programmes. Through these channels he brings regularly and to a vast audience a scientific perspective on a wide variety of current news and events.

In 2003 he was awarded the First Prize on the «Raising Public Awareness on Mathematics» competition organized by the European Mathematics Society.

In 2008 the European Union awarded him a European Science Award (ex-Descartes prize). He won the second place as «Science Communicator of the Year».. Previous winners of this prize include Sir David Attenborough and Bill Bryson. The prize statement coined the phrase «Cratos approach» for his science popularizing style. The jury characterized his writings as «easy to read. but also informative and scientifically sound», stressing that they address topics of «major public interest [...] dealt with humour, intelligence and a distinct journalistic style».