Librería Portfolio

This book provides a fun, hands-on approach to learning how mathematics and computing relate to the world around us and help us to better understand it. How can reposting on Twitter kill a movie's opening weekend? How can you use mathematics to find your celebrity look-alike? What is Homer Simpson's method for disproving Fermat's Last Theorem? Each topic in this refreshingly inviting book illustrates a famous mathematical algorithm or result--such as Google's PageRank and the traveling salesman problem--and the applications grow more challenging as you progress through the chapters. But don't worry, helpful solutions are provided each step of the way.

Math Bytes shows you how to do calculus using a bag of chocolate chips, and how to prove the Euler characteristic simply by doodling. Generously illustrated in color throughout, this lively and entertaining book also explains how to create fractal landscapes with a roll of the dice, pick a competitive bracket for March Madness, decipher the math that makes it possible to resize a computer font or launch an Angry Bird--and much, much more. All of the applications are presented in an accessible and engaging way, enabling beginners and advanced readers alike to learn and explore at their own pace--a bit and a byte at a time.

Tim Chartier is associate professor of mathematics at Davidson College. He is the coauthor of Numerical Methods (Princeton).



Table of Contents:

Preface ix
1Your First Byte 1
2Deceiving Arithmetic 5
3Two by Two 11
4Infinite Detail 21
5Plot the Course 32
6Doodling into a Labyrinth 42
7Obama-cize Yourself 54
8Painting with M&Ms 61
9Distorting Reality 73
10A Pretty Mathematical Face 86
11March MATHness 98
12Ranking a Googol of Bits 105
13A Byte to Go 124
14Up to the Challenge 125
Bibliography 131
Index 133
Image Credits 135