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Proofiness: How You're Being Fooled by the Numbers
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Proofiness: How You're Being Fooled by the Numbers Paperback - 2011 - 1st Edition

by Charles Seife

The bestselling author of "Zero" shows how mathematical misinformation pervades and shapes daily lives. "Proofiness," as Seife explains in this eye-opening book, is the art of using pure mathematics for impure ends, and he reminds readers that bad mathematics has a dark side.


Summary

From the author of Zero, comes this "admirable salvo against quantitative bamboozlement by the media and the government" (The Boston Globe)

In Zero, Charles Seife presented readers with a thrilling account of the strangest number known to humankind. Now he shows readers how the power of skewed metrics-or "proofiness"- is being used to alter perception in both amusing and dangerous ways. Proofiness is behind such bizarre stories as a mathematical formula for the perfect butt and sprinters who can run faster than the speed of sound. But proofiness also has a dark side: bogus mathematical formulas used to undermine our democracy-subverting our justice system, fixing elections, and swaying public opinion with lies. By doing the real math, Seife elegantly and good-humoredly scrutinizes our growing obsession with metrics while exposing those who misuse them.

From the publisher

From the author of Zero, comes this "admirable salvo against quantitative bamboozlement by the media and the government" (The Boston Globe)

In Zero, Charles Seife presented readers with a thrilling account of the strangest number known to humankind. Now he shows readers how the power of skewed metrics-or "proofiness"- is being used to alter perception in both amusing and dangerous ways. Proofiness is behind such bizarre stories as a mathematical formula for the perfect butt and sprinters who can run faster than the speed of sound. But proofiness also has a dark side: bogus mathematical formulas used to undermine our democracy-subverting our justice system, fixing elections, and swaying public opinion with lies. By doing the real math, Seife elegantly and good-humoredly scrutinizes our growing obsession with metrics while exposing those who misuse them.

Details

  • Title Proofiness: How You're Being Fooled by the Numbers
  • Author Charles Seife
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition number 1st
  • Edition 1
  • Pages 320
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books
  • Date 2011-09-27
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Maps, Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780143120070 / 0143120077
  • Weight 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 in (20.07 x 13.46 x 1.78 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Library of Congress subjects Mathematics, Pseudoscience
  • Dewey Decimal Code 510

Media reviews

END

About the author

Charles Seife is the author of five previous books, including Proofiness and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction and was a New York Times notable book. He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. He is a professor of journalism at New York University and lives in New York City.
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