Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences 1st Edition

by John Allen Paulos (Author)

153 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0809058402

ISBN-10: 0809058405

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Why do even well-educated people understand so little about mathematics? And what are the costs of our innumeracy? John Allen Paulos, in his celebrated bestseller first published in 1988, argues that our inability to deal rationally with very large numbers and the probabilities associated with them results in misinformed governmental policies, confused personal decisions, and an increased susceptibility to pseudoscience of all kinds. Innumeracy lets us know what we're missing, and how we can do something about it.

Sprinkling his discussion of numbers and probabilities with quirky stories and anecdotes, Paulos ranges freely over many aspects of modern life, from contested elections to sports stats, from stock scams and newspaper psychics to diet and medical claims, sex discrimination, insurance, lotteries, and drug testing. Readers of Innumeracy will be rewarded with scores of astonishing facts, a fistful of powerful ideas, and, most important, a clearer, more quantitative way of looking at their world.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Our society would be unimaginably different if the average person truly understood the ideas in this marvelous and important book.” ―Douglas Hofstadter

“[An] elegant ... Survival Manual ... Brief, witty and full of practical applications.” ―Stefan Kanfer, Time

About the Author

John Allen Paulos, professor of mathematics at Temple University and the author of several other popular books on mathematics, is a regular contributor to national publications, including The New York Times and Newsweek. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Grade Level: 09 - 12
Paperback: 180 pages
Publisher: HOLT MCDOUGAL; 1 edition (August 18, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0809058405
ISBN-13: 978-0809058402
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 153 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #95 in Books > Education & Teaching > Schools & Teaching > Instruction Methods > Social Studies
- #314 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Statistics
- #390 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Applied > Probability & Statistics

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Amazon Customer

Innumeracy - the book

March 1, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The author goes through a large number of real-world examples of applied mathematics, that I (a retired engineer) had thought were like breathing out, breathing in. When I shared a couple of them with my adolescent grand-children, I found some enthusiastic "aha!!" moments. Huh...

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gergelyk

Some good nuggets, but not a polished piece

December 5, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I bought this book after it was referenced in the very well-written The Panic Virus (Seth Mnookin), which I'd highly recommend. I was curious about a professional's take on math skills in the general population. There's plenty of good insight and information, but it's like the author couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to rant or educate. He covers a number of numerical fallacies and adds explanations, but often it feels like the explanation would come up short to anyone who really didn't understand the particular issue being covered. I'm quite good with math myself so it was easy for me to follow everything, but parts of the book came off more as a "we smart people get why that's so dumb". I think the book could be improved by either tightening it up and focusing on a more advanced reader group or by really fleshing out the explanations to try and really help readers who are not good at math and actually suffer from the innumeracy/ies he describes. He could probably have done both even, if he set up chapters with a high-level concept, issue and effects section, then an educational/explanation section that the advanced reader could easily skip over.

Lots of good, but could really use a revision or two.

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Always Shopping

Even a highschooler can like this book

April 12, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Innumeracy opens your mind and makes you question things you have heard on television and the news. John Allen Paulos, who is fantastically witty, explains complex and simple misconceptions in a manner that almost anyone can understand. Paulos writes takes you back into history with Julius Caesar and brings you back to the present with baseball figures and common mistakes in statistics. It opens your mind to just what exactly numbers can do and how they revolve around almost every aspect in our lives. Innumeracy makes you look at yourself and others around you and see how understanding numbers can help you improve in numerous ways. Paulos applies mathematics to almost every aspect in life. If you believe you are "not a math person," then this is the book for you. Using real life examples, Paulos makes you understand why math and numbers are so important. Innumeracy shows how celebrities, presidents, and major politicians use numbers in the wrong way. It is amazing what you will find out in this information-packed book. From statistics to probability to the multiplication principle, this book has it all and is written in such a way that makes even the most boring subject interesting to any reader. Witty and to-the-point, Paulos writes a book that could change the way people think for the better and most likely improve our society as a whole. If everyone read this book, it is amazing what the results would be. He takes the most relevant and sometimes controversial subjects and applies them to math while pointing out how some things are not correct at all. You will soon find yourself thinking twice about saying, "I am not a math person" or "Math just isn't my subject."

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Beyond HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS

October 27, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is the book for people who want to go one step beyond HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS. So many of us are bewitched by sloppy statistics, by flawed procedurals that wind up in the mass media and other lies, some benign, some not, that author Paulos felt this book was necessary. He went on to write a couple more according to the same themes.

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emrm

Excellent writer and thinker

April 4, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Loved his writing style. Breezy and entertaining, though all about a dreaded subject (for me)... math! I have been an innumerate, but this book sparked a lot of thought and I also understood most of the 'mathy' stuff he broke down. Though the book is not at all technical and, in fact, mostly is common sense. (Though there are areas where we need to use numbers to break things down- since not everything is common sense and we humans do sometimes get things mixed up-- in the areas of statistics and probability, especially.) I would read other books written by John Allen Paulos.

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Most recent customer reviews

OpenMindedNotCredulous

Only prerequisite is an interest in knowing if basic math skills are important

You don't need to know much more than basic arithmetic to be able to appreciate the examples in this book.Read more

Published 1 month ago

Brian Wakhutu

Four Stars

A book everyone should have a copy

Published 2 months ago

Everyone should read this book!

Absolutely eye opening how the numerical equivalent of illiteracy impacts each us, our societies and our future. This book will make you look at the world differently.

Published 2 months ago

Kimberly Fultonon

Overall a good overview of the facade of pseudo-science

Innumeracy describes the various fallacies in statistics and gives countless real-world examples as well.Read more

Published 8 months ago

Michael

Read it and Think about your level of Mathematical understanding

This book deals with an important subject that needs much more attention, the lack of mathematical understanding by most people.Read more

Published 9 months ago

JMG

Excellent.

Use this to help Statistics students get a solid, intuitive understanding of the subject. Excellent.

Published 9 months ago

Amazon Customer

It's good.

I've read a number of skeptic books. This one doesn't break any new ground but it's a good addition to a skeptic library.

Published 11 months ago

L Michael Szendrey

persistence id required iin certain chapters.. It worthwhile ...

persistence id required iin certain chapters.. It worthwhile reading but I fear the book could not be understood by an inumerate person.

Published 1 year ago

Spectre007

You owe it to yourself to have this book.

Awesome book. An absolute classic.

Published 1 year ago

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