What really matters is not how to solve math problems.
How to think like a mathematician!
The exciting world of mathematics, illustrated by a former math teacher.

Why isn't math popular? When people think of math, these are the things that usually come to mind.
Confusing formulas, complex calculations, unknown graphs… … .
The same was true for the students the author met in the classroom.
High school freshmen's conclusions on 'Why study geometry' were as follows.
"We study mathematics to prove to colleges and employers that we're smart and hard-working." Is that really true? This book is an ambitious attempt to show mathematics not as a mechanism for distinguishing between high and low performers, but as a profound principle of the world.


In "The Strange Book of Mathematics," Ben Olin shows us the true face of mathematics we need to know right now.
The myriad uses of mathematics, the strange symbols, and the mind-boggling logical leaps and beliefs that characterize the study of mathematics, which are generally difficult to understand.
The author, who believes that mathematics should be accessible to everyone, uses his trademark colorful "weird pictures" and humorous jokes to explain mathematical concepts and principles in an easy-to-understand way.
A novel form of tic-tac-toe shows how mathematicians think, a pair of dice shows how to understand an economic crisis, and the mathematical headaches that come with trying to build a spherical Death Star from Star Wars.
Covering topics ranging from the US Electoral College to human genetics and why you shouldn't trust statistics, this book will be a life-changing read for both those who have grown up with math and those who have fallen in love with it.

When I graduated from college in 2009, I thought I knew why math wasn't popular.
This is because the way math is taught in general is flawed.
Math classes take beautiful, imaginative, and logical art, chop it up into tiny pieces, and then give students the impossible task of putting the pieces back together.
So it's no wonder that students are groaning, it's no wonder that students are failing math, and it's no wonder that adults grit their teeth when they recall the days when they studied math.
The solution was so obvious.
Mathematics needed a better explanation, and it needed someone to give it a better explanation.
--- p.7, from the 'Preface'

The greatest mathematicians throughout history have not stopped at achieving intellectual feats; they have also blazed new trails for others to follow.
Euclid put his past insights into an irreplaceable and invaluable textbook.
Cantor condensed his understanding of infinity into a concise argument that is easy to follow.
A mentor to generations of harmonic analysts, Stein became an advisor to mathematicians as great as himself.
(……) A mathematician who is unable to properly convey his thoughts will, like me that day, be isolated in his own thoughts like an island, unable to reach others.
On the other hand, mathematicians who can share the truth they know will enjoy the joy of being appreciated and treated as heroes by others.
--- p.68~69, from Part 1, Chapter 5, ‘Outstanding Mathematicians and Great Mathematicians’

Life is the same.
It's full of random, one-off events.
Trains can be delayed when you least expect it, unexpected comebacks can happen, and parking spaces can magically appear out of nowhere.
In this stormy world, nothing is impossible, and fate never foretells events.
But if you flip a coin trillion times, a completely different world unfolds.
A world well-rounded by long-term averages awaits.
Here, half of all coins land on heads, half of all newborns are boys, and events with a probability of one in a million happen roughly once in a million.
In this dazzlingly sunny world of theory, there is no whim or coincidence.
Caprice and chance are like pebbles thrown into the sea, lost in the sum total of all possibilities.
Probability theory bridges these two worlds.
The world we know is rough and ambiguous, so probability theory is necessary.
(……) We, who are destined to die, can never set foot in the world of eternity, but thanks to probability theory, we can glimpse that world.
--- p.172~173, from Part 3, 'Probability Theory: The Mathematics of Maybe'

Statistics allows us to build powerful models of reality through classification, estimation, and prediction.
Yes, that's right.
This whole process hinges on simplification.
Yes, that's right.
Simplification is lying through omission.
But if used well, statistics can be an honest lie.
This process requires all the virtues inherent in human thought, from curiosity to compassion.
If you look at it that way, statistics is not much different from the stick figures drawn in this book.
Statistics is a strange picture of the real world.
Although it is a painting without hands or nose, it still tells a unique truth in its own way.
--- p.271, from Part 4, 'Statistics: The Art of Lying Honestly'

Science has never been defined by absolute certainty or Superman-like perfection.
In science, it has always been paramount to test all hypotheses with a healthy skepticism.
Statistics is an indispensable ally in this fight.
It is true that statistics has played a part in pushing science to the brink, but it is also clear that it will play a part in bringing science back on track.
--- p.336, from Part 4, Chapter 18, 'The Barbarians at the Gates of Science: The Crisis of the p-Value'

Of the last ten elections, five went for the Republicans and five went for the Democrats.
If we average this out, it turns out that the Democratic Party had an advantage of less than 0.1 percent.
Silver points out:
“There is virtually no correlation between which party has an electoral advantage in one election and which party has that advantage four years later.
This part can go back and forth depending on relatively subtle changes that occur among the overall electorate.”
--- p.435, from Part 5, Chapter 23, 'Is the US presidential election a red and blue coloring game?!'

From Tversky's perspective, small choices follow predictable causal relationships.
But events that occur on a large scale are created by diabolically complex and interconnected systems.
In this system, every movement is context-dependent.
I think the same goes for human history.
One person can predict.
But the crowd doesn't.
The sophisticated interactions of crowds amplify some patterns and erase others without any apparent reason.
It is no coincidence that the game of life, like Lorenz's weather simulation, emerged in the computer age.
Chaos, in essence, is not something one can picture in one's mind.
The human mind has a strong tendency to smooth things out and round the truth down to the nearest decimal place.
To manipulate chaos so masterfully and reveal its patterns, or rather its absence, would have required a brain much larger and faster than ours.

--- p.451, from Part 5, Chapter 24, 'Chaos of History'