Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (Vintage) English Language Edition

by John Allen Paulos (Author)

153 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0679726012

ISBN-10: 0679726012

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Share <Embed>

Condition: Used - Very Good

In Stock. Sold by BGDG Enterprises, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

111 Used from $5.06

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Select delivery location

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by OSTOM and Fulfilled by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

This item does not ship to France. Please check other sellers who may ship internationally. Learn more

14 New from $18.19

Select delivery location

Turn on 1-Click ordering

More Buying Choices

14 New from $18.19 111 Used from $5.06 4 Collectible from $5.00

129 used & new from $5.06

See All Buying Options

Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student

Dozens of examples in innumeracy show us how it affects not only personal economics and travel plans, but explains mischosen mates, inappropriate drug-testing, and the allure of psuedo-science.

Frequently bought together

+

Total price: $30.22

These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (Vintage) by John Allen Paulos Paperback $22.95
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by OSTOM and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff Paperback $7.27
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

John Allen Paulos

153

Paperback
$10.74
Charles Wheelan

466

in Business Statistics
Paperback
$13.78
John Allen Paulos

4

Hardcover
$24.95
Darrell Huff

475

Paperback
$7.27
John Allen Paulos

47

Paperback
$16.99
Tobias Dantzig

36

Paperback
$17.80

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is the book that made "innumeracy" a household word, at least in some households. Paulos admits that "at least part of the motivation for any book is anger, and this book is no exception. I'm distressed by a society which depends so completely on mathematics and science and yet seems to indifferent to the innumeracy and scientific illiteracy of so many of its citizens."

But that is not all that drives him. The difference between our pretensions and reality is absurd and humorous, and the numerate can see this better than those who don't speak math. "I think there's something of the divine in these feelings of our absurdity, and they should be cherished, not avoided."

Paulos is not entirely successful at balancing anger and absurdity, but he tries. His diatribes against astrology, bad math education, Freud, and willful ignorance are leavened with jokes, mathematical or the sort (he claims) favored by the numerate.

It remains to be seen if Innumeracy will indeed be able, as Hofstadter hoped, to "help launch a revolution in math education that would do for innumeracy what Sabin and Salk did for polio"--but many of the improvements Paulos suggested have come to pass within 10 years. Only time will tell if the generation raised on these new principles is more resistant to innumeracy--and need only worry about being incomputable. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Review

He takes us a couple of steps closer to numeracy, and it is all in all an enlightening place to be. -- Christopher Lehman-Haupt, New York Times, 1989

Paulos makes numbers, probability, and statistics perform like so many trained seals for the reader's entertainment and enlightenment. -- Jon Van, Chicago Tribune, 1989

The innumerate will surely profit from this entertaining book. -- Morris Kline, New York Times Book Review, 1989

The world, as seen by Paulos, is less mysterious, yet somehow more elegant, less magical, yet more wonderful. So many apparently strange events do, in fact, become all the more magnificent in their not-so-fearful symmetry. -- Arthur Salm, San Diego Tribune, 1989

This admirable little book is only 135 pages long. You can read it in 2 hours. Chances are that they could be among the most enlightening and even profitable 120 minutes you ever spent. -- Henry Kisor, Cicago Sun-Times, 1989

This elegant survival manual is brief, witty, and full of practical applications. (Stefan Kanfer, Time Magazine, 1989)

REVIEW: Like carrying on a conversation with an engaging, articulate math whiz who easily shifts from the profound to the funny. -- Christopher Farrell, Business Week, 1989

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 180 pages
Publisher: Vintage; English Language edition (January 16, 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679726012
ISBN-13: 978-0679726012
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 153 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1074 in Books > Science & Math > Mathematics > Applied > Probability & Statistics
- #2726 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Important information

Ingredients

Example Ingredients

Directions

Example Directions

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

See Kindle Edition

Customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

See all 153 customer reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

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...

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

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.

4 people found this helpful5 people found this helpful

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."

2 people found this helpful3 people found this helpful

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.

One person found this helpful

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.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Darrell Huff

475

Paperback
$7.27
John Allen Paulos

153

Paperback
$10.74
Danica McKellar

425

Paperback
$13.81

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: statistics examples

English United States

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads
© 1996-2018, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates