Figuring It Out

1.Everyday Matters.The dinner table algorithm.-Cutting the Christmas cake.-Oranges and computers.-When two and two don't make four.-Getting more intelligent every day.-The other lane always goes faster.-Shoelaces and neckties.-Number puzzles.-Tossing a coin.-The switch.- Eubulides, the heap and the euro.- 2.The Earth Is Round. How GPS works.-Gear wheels.- February 29.-The nonius scale.- Pedro Nunes' map.- Lighthouse geometry.-Asteroids and least squares.-The useful man and the genius.-3.Secret Affairs. Alice and Bob.- Inviolate cybersecrets.-Quantum cryptography.-The FBI wavelet.-The Enigma machine.-4. Art And Geometry.The Vitruvian Man.-The golden number.-The geometry of A4 paper sizes.-The strange worlds of Escher.-Escher and the Möbius belt.-Picasso, Einstein and the fourth dimension.-Pollock's fractals.-Voronoi diagrams.-The Platonic solids.-Pythagorean mosquitoes.-The most beautiful of all.- 5. Mathematical Matters.The power of math.-Doubts in the realm of certainty.-When chance enhances reliability.-The difficulty of randomness.-Conjectures and proofs.-Mr. Benford.-Financial fractals.-The Turing test.- DNA computers.-Magical multiplications.-Pi day.-The best job in the world.- 6. Out Of This World. Electoral paradoxes.-The melon paradox.- The cupcake paradox.- Infinity.-Unfair games.-Monsieur Bertrand.-Boy or Girl?.-A puzzle for Christmas.-Crisis time for Easter Eggs.

Nuno Crato is one of the leading science writers in Portugal. He is a professor of Mathematics at the Technca1 University of Lisbon, current president of the Portuguese Mathematical Society, a researcher in stochastic processes, and a well-known science popularizer.

Nuno Crato is the author of several best-selling popular science books and takes a leading role in bringing mathemalics to a wider audience. He is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines and author of radio and TV programmes. Through these channels he brings regularly and to a vast audience a scientific perspective on a wide variety of current news and events.


In 2003 he was awarded the First Prize on the «Raising Public Awareness on Mathematics» competition organized by the European Mathematics Society.


In 2008 the European Union awarded him a European Science Award (ex-Descartes prize). He won the second place as «Science Communicator of the Year».. Previous winners of this prize include Sir David Attenborough and Bill Bryson. The prize statement coined the phrase «Cratos approach» for his science popularizing style. The jury characterized his writings as «easy to read. but also informative and scientifically sound», stressing that they address topics of «major public interest [...] dealt with humour, intelligence and a distinct journalistic style».

From the reviews:

"All people, including professional mathematicians, should read some of the popular works of mathematics. Taking that as a given, this book should be a bestseller within mathematical circles. It contains a set of short essays about mathematics as it is used in the lives of all people. Generally 3-4 pages in length, the essays are easily understood and will either initiate the lay reader into some of the valuable ways mathematics is used or remind professionals just how valuable their field is to society." (Charles Ashbacher, MAA Reviews, November, 2010)

"Crato's presentation is to examine how problems, some challenging and of great importance and some of minor consequence yet thought provoking, have been resolved over the centuries. ... Impressively, the essays never get bogged down with complicated mathematical formulae, yet they still provide sufficient detail of the human endeavor and mathematical underpinnings involved, allowing the book to be of interest to both the layperson and the advanced expert. Overall, the stories are amusing, intriguing, insightful, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." (N. W. Schillow, Choice, Vol. 48 (9), May, 2011)

"The present book is about the power and beauty of mathematics. ... Nuno Crato ... explains things in a way that everybody can follow. Therefore, the book is also directed at school pupils and can inspire teachers. ... You can learn interesting details about the life and the research of famous astronomers, mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists ... . It is a wonderful book that can help to popularize mathematics and can demonstrate the importance of mathematics in our everyday life." (Werner H. Schmidt, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1219, 2011)