In the book, The Math of Life & Death, Kit Yates walks the reader through seven mathematical principals that shape our lives. British readers will be happy to know the book was originally published in Great Britain as The Maths of Life & Death.
Kit Yates website: The Maths of Life and Death | Seeing the world through a mathematical lens (kityates.com)
Kit Yates twitter: (18) Kit Yates (@Kit_Yates_Maths) / Twitter
I learned something new immediately in the introduction where he describes the simple method of capture-recapture for estimating wildlife populations (although this method may have proved difficult in my past effort on completing a worm census).
Yates avoid including equations and relied on describing clear examples. For instance, in explaining exponential decay, he gives simple example using M&M candies. One chapter (each chapter is dedicated to one of the seven principles) focuses on misuses of statistics and mathematical reasoning in the courtroom. Another clear example is given instructing how to measure your lung capacity using just a plastic bag and a container of water. Another chapter is dedicated to tragic mistakes made in aviation, space exploration and medicine that occurred from decimal point errors, the use of wrong units (metric vs. imperial units) and rounding errors.
Update 1/22/2022 - At the time of this post we are approaching a turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic. As Yates was finishing this book, the pandemic had just started, and he included a very timely chapter on the math used by epidemiologists for tracking and predicting the course of a disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment