内容简介
The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our handsThe math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In
How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it.
Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer?
How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God.
Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.
作者简介
Jordan Ellenberg is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a 2015 Guggenheim fellow. He has lectured around the world on his research in number theory and delivered one of the invited addresses at the 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings, the largest math conference in the world. His writing has appeared in
?The New York Times,?
The Washington Post,?
The Wall Street Journal,?
The Boston Globe,?
Wired,?and?
The Believer, and he has been featured on the Today show and NPR’s?
All Things Considered. He writes a popular column called “Do the Math” for?
Slate.,,
精彩书评
Manil Suri,?The Washington Post:“Brilliantly engaging.... Ellenberg’s talent for finding real-life situations that enshrine mathematical principles would be the envy of any math teacher. He presents these in fluid succession, like courses in a fine restaurant, taking care to make each insight shine through, unencumbered by jargon or notation. Part of the sheer intellectual joy of the book is watching the author leap nimbly from topic to topic, comparing slime molds to the Bush-Gore Florida vote, criminology to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The final effect is of one enormous mosaic unified by mathematics.”
Mario Livio, The Wall Street Journal:“Easy-to-follow, humorously presented.... This book will help you to avoid the pitfalls that result from not having the right tools. It will help you realize that mathematical reasoning permeates our lives—that it can be, as Mr. Ellenberg writes, a kind of 'X-ray specs that reveal hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of the world.'”
Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American:“Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read....
How Not to Be Wrong can help you explore your mathematical superpowers.”
Laura Miller, Salon:“A poet-mathematician offers an empowering and entertaining primer for the age of Big Data.... A rewarding popular math book for just about anyone.”
Nature:“Mathematicians from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to Steven Strogatz have celebrated the power of mathematics in life and the imagination. In this hugely enjoyable exploration of everyday maths as 'an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense', Jordan Ellenberg joins their ranks. Ellenberg, an academic and Slate’s ‘Do the Math’ columnist, explains key principles with erudite gusto—whether poking holes in predictions of a US 'obesity apocalypse', or unpicking an attempt by psychologist B. F. Skinner to prove statistically that Shakespeare was a dud at alliteration.”
Times Higher Education:“A fresh application of complex mathematical thinking to commonplace events....
How Not to Be Wrong is beautifully written, holding the reader’s attention throughout with well-chosen material, illuminating exposition, wit and helpful examples. I am reminded of the great writer of recreational mathematics, Martin Gardner: Ellenberg shares Gardner’s remarkable ability to write clearly and entertainingly, bringing in deep mathematical ideas without the reader registering their difficulty.”
Kirkus Reviews:“The author avoids heavy jargon and relies on real-world anecdotes and basic equations and illustrations to communicate how even simple math is a powerful tool….[Ellenberg]writes that, at its core, math is a special thing and produces a feeling of understanding unattainable elsewhere: ‘You feel you’ve reached into the universe’s guts and put your hand on the wire.’ Math is profound, and profoundly awesome, so we should use it well—or risk being wrong….Witty and expansive, Ellenberg’s math will leave readers informed, intrigued and armed with plenty of impressive conversation starters.”
Booklist:“Readers will indeed marvel at how often mathematics sheds unexpected light on economics (assessing the performance of investment advisors), public health (predicting the likely prevalence of obesity in 30 years), and politics (explaining why wealthy individuals vote Republican but affluent states go for Democrats). Relying on remarkably few technical formulas, Ellenberg writes with humor and verve as he repeatedly demonstrates that mathematics simply extends common sense. He manages to translate even the work of theoretical pioneers such as Cantor and G?del into the language of intelligent amateurs. The surprises that await readers include not only a discovery of the astonishing versatility of mathematical thinking but also a realization of its very real limits. Mathematics, as it turns out, simply cannot resolve the real-world ambiguities surrounding the Bush-Gore cliff-hanger of 2000, nor can it resolve the much larger question of God’s existence. A bracing encounter with mathematics that matters.”
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; author of How the Mind Works:“The title of this wonderful book explains what it adds to the honorable genre of popular writing on mathematics. Like Lewis Carroll, George Gamow, and Martin Gardner before him, Jordan Ellenberg shows how mathematics can delight and stimulate the mind. But he also shows that mathematical thinking should be in the toolkit of every thoughtful person—of everyone who wants to avoid fallacies, superstitions, and other ways of being wrong.”
Steven Strogatz, Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, and author, The Joy of x:“With math as with anything else, there’s smart, and then there’s street smart. This book will help you be both. Fans of
Freakonomics and
The Signal and the Noise will love Ellenberg’s surprising stories, snappy writing, and brilliant lessons in numerical savvy.
How Not to Be Wrong is sharp, funny, and right.”
John Allen Paulos, author of Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper:“Through a powerful mathematical lens Jordan Ellenberg engagingly examines real-world issues ranging from the fetishizing of straight lines in the reporting of obesity to the game theory of missing flights, from the relevance to digestion of regression to the mean to the counter-intuitive Berkson’s paradox, which may explain why handsome men don’t seem to be as nice as not so handsome ones. The coverage is broad, but not shallow and the exposition is non-technical and sprightly.”
Timothy Gowers:“Jordan Ellenberg is a top mathematician and a wonderful expositor, and the theme of his book is important and timely.
How Not to Be Wrong is destined to be a classic.”
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex:“Jordan Ellenberg promises to share ways of thinking that are both simple to grasp and profound in their implications, and he delivers in spades. These beautifully readable pages delight and enlighten in equal parts. Those who already love math will eat it up, and those who don’t yet know how lovable math is are in for a most pleasurable surprise."
Danica McKellar, actress and bestselling author of Math Doesn’t Suck and Kiss My Math:"Brilliant and fascinating! Ellenberg shows his readers how to magnify common sense using the tools usually only accessible to those who have studied higher mathematics. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in expanding their worldly savviness—and math IQ!"
The Guardian“
How Not to Be Wrong is a cheery?manifesto for the utility of mathematical thinking. Ellenberg's prose is a delight – informal and robust, irreverent yet serious. Maths is "an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength," he writes. Doing maths "is to be, at once, touched by fire and bound by reason. Logic forms a narrow channel through which intuition flows with vastly augmented force.”
前言/序言
《数学的艺术:从直觉到严谨的思维漫步》 引言: 在浩瀚的知识海洋中,数学犹如一座灯塔,指引着人类探索自然、理解世界的步伐。然而,对于许多人而言,数学常常与枯燥的公式、复杂的计算和遥不可及的抽象概念联系在一起。本书旨在打破这种刻板印象,带领读者踏上一场充满惊喜与启发的数学思维之旅,探索数学思想的内在美感与强大力量。我们不追求繁复的定理证明,而是聚焦于数学家们如何思考、如何构建模型、以及如何用数学的语言来描绘和解决现实世界中的难题。 第一部分:直觉的觉醒——从日常现象中发现数学之美 本部分将引导读者从最贴近生活的现象入手,激发对数学的原始好奇心。我们将探讨看似简单的日常事件背后所蕴含的深刻数学原理。 第一章:概率的悖论与日常的权衡 生活中充满了不确定性,而概率论正是我们量化和管理这种不确定性的强大工具。我们将从经典的“生日问题”开始,揭示直觉在面对组合爆炸时的局限性。通过蒙特卡罗模拟的简单演示,读者可以直观地理解随机性的本质,并学习如何利用概率思维来做出更明智的决策,无论是投资、医疗诊断还是天气预报。我们还将深入研究期望值和决策树的概念,阐释如何在信息不完全的情况下进行最优选择。 第二章:几何的视觉魔力与空间的构造 几何学不仅仅是关于形状和角度,更是关于空间组织和视觉认知的科学。本章将探讨欧几里得几何的优雅之处,但重点将放在非欧几何的引入如何改变我们对“直线”和“空间曲率”的理解。我们会通过拓扑学的视角,审视哪些属性在连续形变下保持不变(例如,甜甜圈和咖啡杯的等价性),这不仅在纯数学中至关重要,也是理解物理学中时空结构的关键。此外,分形几何的引入将展示无限的复杂性如何从简单的迭代规则中涌现,连接着艺术、自然界(如海岸线和雪花)与数据压缩技术。 第三章:斐波那契数列与自然界的秘密代码 自然界似乎遵循着一套隐藏的数学规则。本章将以斐波那契数列及其与黄金比例的紧密联系为核心,展示这些数字如何在向日葵的种子排列、松果的螺旋、甚至鹦鹉螺的壳中精确体现。我们将探讨“最优排列”的数学原理,解释为什么自然界会偏爱这种看似随机却又极度有序的结构。这部分内容旨在让读者体会到数学作为一种普遍语言,能够统一看似无关的自然现象。 第二部分:逻辑的阶梯——从猜想到证明的力量 数学的严谨性来源于其无懈可击的逻辑结构。本部分将侧重于数学思维的“推导”过程,展示如何将一个灵感的火花转化为可靠的知识体系。 第四章:证明的艺术:演绎推理的严密性 证明是数学的核心。我们将介绍几种主要的证明方法,如直接证明、反证法和数学归纳法,并用生动的例子加以说明。我们将分析著名的“哥德巴赫猜想”等未解难题的魅力所在,以及它们对证明方法提出的挑战。本章的关键在于培养读者对“为什么”的探究精神,理解一个结论被接受所需要付出的逻辑努力。 第五章:集合论的基石与无限的层次 面对无限的概念,人类的直觉常常失效。本章将简要介绍朴素集合论的基础,重点在于康托尔对不同“大小”无限的划分。我们将对比可数无限(如自然数)和不可数无限(如实数)的差异,解释对角线论证的精妙之处。理解这些概念有助于读者建立对无限集合的更精确的数学框架,而非仅仅停留在哲学思辨层面。 第六章:算法思维:问题的分解与解决的蓝图 算法不仅仅是计算机科学的专利,它是一种通用的问题解决策略。我们将分析贪心算法、分治法等经典算法思想。通过解决著名的“旅行商问题”或“图着色问题”,读者将了解到优化问题的复杂性,以及有时接受“足够好”的近似解比追求完美解更具现实意义。算法思维训练的是一种结构化的、分步骤的解决问题的能力。 第三部分:模型与现实——数学如何塑造现代世界 数学不仅仅存在于纸面上,它深深地嵌入了我们生活的方方面面,驱动着现代技术的进步。 第七章:微积分的革命:理解变化率的语言 微积分是人类智力史上最伟大的成就之一,因为它赋予了我们精确描述和预测运动与变化的能力。本章将着重于导数(瞬时变化率)和积分(累积效应)的直观意义,而非繁琐的求导法则。我们将展示牛顿和莱布尼茨如何利用微积分来解释行星运动,以及现代工程学(如桥梁设计、火箭发射)如何依赖于对瞬时状态的精确计算。 第八章:线性代数的骨架:数据与变换的结构 在数据爆炸的时代,线性代数——矩阵和向量的世界——已成为理解复杂系统的核心工具。本章将解释向量空间的概念,说明矩阵如何表示从图像旋转到数据降维的各种“变换”。我们将探讨主成分分析(PCA)的原理,展示如何用线性的思维来提炼海量数据中的关键信息,这是现代机器学习和大数据分析的基石。 第九章:网络科学与连接的力量 我们生活在一个高度互联的世界,无论是社交网络、互联网还是生物分子通路。本章将介绍图论的基本概念,如节点、边、路径和中心性。通过分析网络的结构特性,我们可以理解信息的传播速度、病毒的扩散模式,以及基础设施的脆弱性。理解网络结构,就是理解现代社会的动态和相互依赖性。 结语:数学的持续探索 本书旨在揭示数学作为一种强大思维工具的本质,它关乎逻辑、美感、创造力和对世界的深刻洞察。数学并非一套孤立的知识,而是人类探索真理、构建未来世界的持续努力的一部分。我们鼓励读者带着这份新的视角,继续在日常生活中发现数学的痕迹,并勇于用数学的严谨性去挑战和理解那些看似复杂或棘手的问题。数学之美,在于其普适性与无限的延展性。