Math with Bad Drawings

Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality

Contributors

By Ben Orlin

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD
  2. ebook $14.99 $19.99 CAD
  3. Hardcover $30.00 $39.00 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 5, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A hilarious and bestselling reintroduction to mathematics, illustrating the ideas with stories, humor, and stick figures.

In Math with Bad Drawings, Ben Orlin reveals what math is all about. His tools are unorthodox: jokes, cartoons, strange-but-true stories, and beneath it all, the empathy of a veteran teacher who believes that math should belong to everyone. Orlin helps us to think like mathematicians by teaching a brand-new game of tic-tac-toe, profiling the ten people you meet in line for the lottery, and documenting the headaches that ensue when the Evil Empire attempts to build a spherical Death Star. Math with Bad Drawings will change the way you see the subject—and the world.

  • "The book is a more polished, extensive discussion of the concepts that pepper Orlin's blog, featuring his trademark caustic wit, a refreshingly breezy conversational tone, and of course, lots and lots of bad drawings. It's a great, entertaining read for neophytes and math fans alike because Orlin excels at finding novel ways to connect the math to real-world problems-or in the case of the Death Star, to problems in fictional worlds."
    Ars Technica
  • "Ben Orlin is terribly bad at drawing. Luckily he's also fantastically clever and charming. His talents have added up to the most glorious, warm, and witty illustrated guide to the irresistible appeal of mathematics."
    Hannah Fry, mathematician, University College London and BBC presenter
  • "Brilliant, wide ranging, and irreverent, Math with Bad Drawings adds ha ha to aha. It'll make you smile - plus it might just make you smarter and wiser."
    Steven Strogatz, Professor of Mathematics, Cornell University, author of The Joy of x

On Sale
Sep 5, 2023
Page Count
376 pages
ISBN-13
9780316509046

Ben Orlin, Author

Ben Orlin

About the Author

Ben Orlin is the author of Math with Bad Drawings (as well as the blog of the same name),Change is the Only Constant. Math Games With Bad Drawings, and Math Games With Bad Drawings: The Ultimate Game Collection. His writing on math and education has appeared in The Atlantic, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles TimesSlateVox, and Popular Science. He has taught middle and high school mathematics and has spoken about math and education at colleges and universities across the United States. He lives with his wife and two daughters in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Learn more about this author