"Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In...

"With the prevailing wisdom changing on an almost daily basis, Burton G. Malkiel's reassuring and vastly informative volume remains the best investment guide money can buy. In a time of increasing inequality, when high-frequency traders and hedge-fund managers seem to tower over the average investor, Burton G. Malkiel's classic and gimmick-free investment guide is now more necessary than ever. Rather than tricks, what you'll find here is a time-tested...

What is math? How exactly does it work? And what do three siblings trying to share a cake have to do with it? In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng provides an accessible introduction to the logic and beauty of mathematics, powered, unexpectedly, by insights from the kitchen: we learn, for example, how the béchamel in a lasagna can be a lot like the number 5, and why making a good custard proves that math is easy but life is hard. Of course,...

Math is a critical part of our everyday lives. The second title in the award-winning101 Things Everyone Should Know series helps you understand how you use math dozens of times—every day. With entertaining connections to sports, hobbies, science, food, and travel, mathematical concepts are simplified and explained using clear, real-life explanations. You'll even learn some fun trivia and math history! Using an engaging question-and-answer format,...

"In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us that math isn't confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do--the whole world is shot through with it. Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It's a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to...

The book that Daniel Tammet, bestselling author and mathematical savant, was born to write. In Tammet's world, numbers are beautiful and mathematics illuminates our lives and minds. Using anecdotes, everyday examples, and ruminations on history, literature, and more, Tammet allows us to share his unique insights and delight in the way numbers, fractions, and equations underpin all our lives. His idiosyncratic worldview gives us new perspecttives on...

"The Magic of Math is the math book you wish you had in school. Using a delightful assortment of examples--from ice cream scoops and poker hands to measuring mountains and making magic squares--this book empowers you to see the beauty, simplicity, and truly magical properties behind those formulas and equations that once left your head spinning. You'll learn the key ideas of classic areas of mathematics like arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry,...

"Simon Singh, author of the bestsellers Fermat's Enigma, The Code Book, and The Big Bang, offers fascinating new insights into the celebrated television series The Simpsons: That the show drip-feeds morsels of number theory into the minds of its viewers--indeed, that there are so many mathematical references in the show, and in its sister program, Futurama, that they could form the basis of an entire university course. Recounting memorable episodes...

Simple text explains fractions, what they are, and how to use them.