100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Maths and the Arts

Discover the the unusual and unexpected application of maths that lies behind the arts.

We are invited to rethink how we see, or hear, the world around us, and to appreciate how simple maths can illuminate creativity

Maths and the arts are often thought to be poles apart, but this shows how intertwined they are and how numbers and calculations are vital to our everyday lives without us realising

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and formerly Professor of both Geometry and Astronomy at Gresham College, London. His previous books include The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book, Cosmic Imagery, the bestselling 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, The Book of Universes, and, most recently, 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport.

What can maths tell us about art and design? 
 
Professor John D. Barrow has all the answers. In 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Maths and the Arts, he shows us that mathematics and the arts are not so far removed from each other. He takes us on a 100-step tour, guiding us through art forms as various as sculpture, literature, architecture and dance, and reveals what maths can tell us about the mysteries of the worlds of art and design. 
 
We find out why diamonds sparkle, how many words Shakespeare knew and why the shower is the best place to sing. We discover why an egg is egg-shaped, why Charles Dickens crusaded against maths and how a soprano can shatter a wine glass without touching it... 
 
 Enlivening the everyday with a new way of looking at the world, this book will enrich your understanding of the maths and art that surround us in our day-to-day lives.

Mathletics

From the author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, a companion volume.

This is a really interesting and original premise that will certainly make you think again about what you know about sport and perhaps make you watch it in an entirely new light

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, Cosmic Imagery and The Book of Universes.

* How can sprinter Usain Bolt break his world record without running any faster? 
 
* Why do high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop? 
 
* What's the best strategy for taking penalties in football? 
 
* What statistical advantage do left-handed boxers have over their right-handed opponents? 
 
* And did you know that gymnasts can experience stronger g-forces than roller-coaster designers are allowed to create? 
 
John D. Barrow shows how maths can give us surprising and enlivening insights into the world of sports - essential reading for competitors, armchair enthusiasts and maths-lovers alike.

100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport

From the author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, a companion volume perfectly timed for the Olympic Games

What can maths tell us about sports? 
 
100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport sheds new light on the mysteries of running, jumping, swimming and points-scoring across the whole sporting spectrum. Whether you are a competitor striving to go faster or higher, or an armchair enthusiast wanting to understand more about your favourite sport, this is a fascinating read. Find out why high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop; how Usain Bolt could break his records without running any faster; what is the best strategy for taking football penalties; what are the effects of those banned skin-tight swimsuits; and last but not least, why the bounce of a Superball seems to defy Newton's laws of motion. 
 
Written for anyone interested in sport or simple mathematics, this book will enrich your understanding of sport and enliven your appreciation of maths.

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. He is the bestselling author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know.

What can maths tell us about sports? 
 
100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport sheds light on the mysteries of running, jumping, swimming and points scoring across the whole sporting spectrum. Whether you are a competitor striving to go faster or higher, or an armchair enthusiast wanting to understand more, this is a fascinating read with one hundred short pieces that range across a wide number of sports. Find out: 
 
* Why high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop, 
 
* How fast Usain Bolt can ultimately run and how he could break his records without running any faster, 
 
* Whether there is a limit to human performance, 
 
* Who the strongest man or woman is, pound for pound, 
 
* Why there are so many different scoring systems in sport, 
 
* If a 100-kilogram mass weighs more in London than it does in Singapore, 
 
* What the best strategy for taking football penalties is, 
 
* What the effect of those banned skin-tight swimsuits are, 
 
* Why golf balls are dimpled, 
 
* And last, but not least, why does the bounce of a Superball seem to defy Newton's laws of motion. 
 
Written for anyone interested in sport or simple maths, this book will enrich your understanding of sport and enliven your appreciation of maths.

The Book of Universes

A book about universes - expanding, contracting, oscillating, time-travelling - from the bestselling author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know.

There can be few better guides to the bewildering array of potential universes, and none so readable or entertaining

Engrossing... He has a fluent and engaging style of writing and a good eye for an unusual quotation, and as a popularising historian of science, he is second to none

A stunning tour of potential universes, introducing us to the brilliant physicists and mathematicians who first revealed these startling possibilities... [and] the latest insights that physics and astronomy have to offer about our own universe

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe; The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing; The Constants of Nature; The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless; Timeless and Endless; The Artful Universe Expanded; New Theories of Everything; and Cosmic Imagery.

This is a book about universes. It tells a story that revolves around a single extraordinary fact: that Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity describes a series of entire universes. Not many solutions to Einstein's tantalising universe equations have ever been found, but those that have are all remarkable. Some describe universes that expand in size, while others contract. Some rotate like a top, while others are chaotically unpredictable. Some are perfectly smooth, while others are lumpy. Some permit time travel into the past. Only a few allow life to evolve within them; the rest, if they exist, remain unknown and unknowable to conscious minds. 
 
Here, in The Book of Universes, we are confronted with the most fantastic and far-reaching speculations within the entire realm of science.

Key Images in the History of Science

Cosmic Imagery

In this lavishly illustrated book one of the UK's most distinguished scientists tells 
the story of science through 200 of the subject's key images.

A captivating pictorial and literary journey through the history of science... a must for every home. It is a book that will repay constant visits, and Bodley Head is to be congratulated on its lavish, robust production.

Barrow has found a vivid way to focus our attention on cutting-edge science, and there is an awful lot to learn already from this lusciously produced and captivating book.

Barrow highlights the power of pictures in discovering and understanding our universe... [and] true to his reputation for excellence in communicating science... this book is sure to provide enjoyable summer-time reading

Questions about the meaning of life, the universe... this book can probably answer the lot... spectacularly illustrated.

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Left Hand of Creation; The Origin of the Universe; The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Infinite Book, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything and, most recently, 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know. He is also the author of the award-winning play Infinities.

* Certain key images embody our understanding of life and the universe we inhabit. Some, like Robert Hooke's first microscopic views of the natural world, or the stunning images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, were made possible by our new technical capabilities. 
* Others, like the first graph, were breathtakingly simple but perennially useful. Vesalius's haunting pictures of the human anatomy were nothing less than works of art, while the simple diagram now known as Pythagoras' Theorem - proved by the ancient Babylonians, Chinese, Indians and Egyptians long before the Greeks themselves - lay the foundations for modern mathematics. 
* Many of these images have shattered our preconceptions about the limits and nature of existence: the first breathtaking pictures of the Earth from space stimulated an environmental consciousness that has grown ever since; the mushroom cloud from atomic and nuclear explosions became the ultimate symbol of death and destruction; the flying saucer came to represent the possibility of extraterrestrial life; while Mercator's flat map of the Earth coordinated an entire world-view. 
* Cosmic Imagery takes us on a tour through the most influential images in science. Each holds an important place in the growth of human understanding and carries with it a story that illuminates its origin and meaning. Together they reveal something of the beauty and truth of the universe, and why, so often, a picture is better than a thousand words.

Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know Brain Shot

BRAIN SHOTS: The byte-sized guide to all the things you didn't know you didn't know...

As people are saying on Twitter, this is a really smart idea. I'm not yet convinced by 'enhanced' ebooks, but I am immediately won over by the idea of abbreviated digital books, that can condense a big book/idea into a 'brain shot'. This to me speaks to how we read digitally, in short and fast jump-shots: or at least it is how I read digitally!

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University. John has written many books - this is his first Brain Shot.

'If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.' John von Neumann 
 
Mathematics can tell you things about the world that can't be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining Brain Shot answers a few essential questions about existence. It unravels the knotty, clarifies the conundrums and sheds light into dark corners. From winning the lottery, financial investment with Time Travellers and the weirdest football match ever to Sherlock Holmes, Elections, game theory, drunks, packing for your holiday and the madness of crowds; from chaos to infinity and everything in between, Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know has all the answers! 
 
BRAIN SHOTS: The byte-sized guide to all the things you didn't know you didn't know...

John D. Barrow

'If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.' John von Neumann 
 
Mathematics can tell you things about the world that can't be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining Brain Shot answers a few essential questions about existence. It unravels the knotty, clarifies the conundrums and sheds light into dark corners. From winning the lottery, financial investment with Time Travelers and the weirdest football match ever to Sherlock Holmes, Elections, game theory, drunks, packing for your holiday and the madness of crowds; from chaos to infinity and everything in between, Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know has all the answers! 
 
BRAIN SHOTS: The byte-sized guide to all the things you didn't know you didn't know...

John D. Barrow

Books by John D. Barrow

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