My girlfriend got me a copy of Matt Parker’s Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World as a Christmas gift. I am a huge fan of books about math, and a huge fan of Matt Parker. He is also known for his YouTube channel “Stand-up Maths” (Parker is Australian, so he pluralizes the subject), where he presents interesting math with loads of humor and funny stories. You may doubt someone’s ability to make math amusing, but he truly is hilarious — for a good laugh, I strongly recommend watching some of his content!
The book’s title gives a good sense of its contents: Parker has compiled a repository of mistakes people have made in various areas of math over the years, from the earliest instances of civilization in Mesopotamia to the modern day. True to the theme, Parker intentionally includes a few math mistakes of his own in the book, and introduces other funny faux pas, like the page numbers counting down instead of up.
Through its plethora of examples, the book shows not only how math mistakes can have huge consequences, but moreover, just how prevalent math is in the world. For instance, in 2038, many microprocessors (which allow a computer’s or device’s CPU to work) will stop working, due to the way they keep track of time. Computers will likely all have 64-bit processors by then, which avoids this issue, but several other devices, like TVs and thermostats, have 32-bit microprocessors, which will succumb to the “Y2K38” bug if not updated by then.
There is another chapter dedicated to engineering mistakes, which are particularly important to highlight for the Stevens population. Engineering is a difficult profession because, sometimes, seemingly small things, like the frequency of footsteps while walking across a bridge, the roundness of boosters on a space shuttle, or even the way doors open, can be missed. Such misses led to the closing of the Millenium Bridge in London after it swayed too much, the Challenger explosion, and an event at an England theater where hundreds of children died due to a lack of safe exit doors.
I haven’t finished the book yet, but the first of the main takeaways I have so far applies to people who are applying math to solve real-world problems, like engineers, financial consultants, and politicians. It is always important to check the math and be sure of its correctness before building something, running functions on Excel, or approving funding for a project. I know that oftentimes we are in a rush to get things done and can miss even easy fixes to a mistake, but making sure everything math-wise is accounted for pushes us toward a better, safer world. Many companies already have employees with extensive math backgrounds to do such things, and I hope that more and more have these positions to prevent catastrophes or errors from occurring.
The other important message is for mathematicians: we need to do the best job possible in advancing mathematics to relevant fields, and teaching that math effectively to our students. When the math is certain, there is much less room for error, because we know how to check if something is wrong. Research allows for uncertain areas of math to become certain, and many mathematicians, pure and applied, are working hard to study such new frontiers.
Moreover, good math teachers try their hardest to give enough background in the subject for going into any line of work. The more such teachers we have, the more math is understood and appreciated by the general workforce and general public, allowing more people to check work before any mistake leads to horrible consequences. As a result, I encourage everyone to read Humble Pi, for math’s and humanity’s sake.
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