How Many Socks Make a Pair?: Surprisingly Interesting Everyday Maths - Hardcover

A witty book that provokes the imagination --The Times, August 2008

Fascinating and totally accessible --Ham & High, August 2008

Exudes a friendly charm which is hard to resist --London Maths Society, September 2008

For a non-mathematician, this book is crucial
--Plus Magazine, September 2008

How often have you gazed into your washing basket at the multitude of socks, searching for a pair? Perhaps you've been wondering if there's a way to shuffle cards so that you will know where the cards will fall.Using playing cards, a newspaper, an apple, the back of an envelope, some pennies, a limerick and of course a pair of socks, Rob Eastaway gives examples of mathematical beauty, moments of insightful discovery, and solutions that will amaze and make you laugh. This book is packed with surprises that everyone, even a die-hard maths-phobic, will enjoy.For example, get yourself a calculator, and multiply together the numbers 3, 7, 11, 13 and 37. Isn't that nice?From curious patterns behind an everyday Sudoku, and how to turn a striped scarf into a gold medal, to an apparently 'fair' coin game where the odds are stacked in your favour to a mind-reading grid that predicts your sum whatever numbers you choose, the author entertains and astonishes by turn. Not only does he share some fascinating facts, he also provides lots of everyday context and quite a few 'experiments' that you can easily try yourself.This is a refreshing look at mathematics that will change your view of this much-maligned subject forever.