Everyday Math for Everyday Life: A Handbook for When It Just Doesn't Add Up

ya gotta read this

I must be math resistant. It didn't improve my math skills I thought it would.

I wish I had this book when I was in 5th and 7th grade. I'm not good at math. In fact I have listed on my lifetime things to do list, be good at math. Mark Ryan's book Everyday Math for Everyday Life... is helping me in a big way to reach that goal. I like the approach that the author takes. He's not just telling you how to work a math problem, he's also explains why the process works and in some cases he addresses common mistakes made when trying to solve problems. I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants to use mathemathics to enhance their everyday life.

I am a genius now.

Great if you're like me and don't use "math" on a regular basis.

This is a decent math overview, but there are better math books out there. There were a few things that he didn't cover. A mistake that a baseball fan like myself caught: On page 137, he makes an oversimplified analysis of the odds of coming back from 3-0 in a World Series,arguing that it's not that difficult. He says it's not that difficult and gives the possibility as about 1 in 20, 6.25% (1/2 to the 4th power). If this number seems rather high, well that's because it is. In baseball, only once has a team come back from 3-0 in any series (the book was written before the Red Sox comeback in 2004). Total record: 1 for 33. In basketball, the team that has fallen behind is now 0 for 111, after Portland lost to Memphis last week. Putting aside the obvious (to most of us) fact that the team that goes ahead 3-0 is usually superior team, there are psychological effects to a series that statistics can't exactly quantify.More importantly, he discusses standard deviation but never explains how to calculate it. That's one of the most important subjects in math and it's a glaring error or oversight. Conclusion: this book is fairly useful , but not the best out there.

Everyday Math for Everyday Life could serve as a perfect stand-in for a math tutor! Mark Ryan's mathematic expertise coupled with a desire to help others is evident as he offers refreshing instruction to those of us with rusty math skill. Subtle humor splashed the pages while I learned to tackle seemingly complex situations involving math in my daily life. Never again will I fear helping children with math homework, nor will I avoid conversations involving finance or insurance. I might have overlooked it had I not been led to it during a math course, and for that I'm grateful, because it will hold center stage in my library from now on and should be the math book of choice for any average person as an invaluable resource of basic formulas and fundamental math concepts. Compared to other math books I've look through, this one is the easiest to read and follow. My conclusion is that everyone should have had a math instructor like Mr. Ryan. Owning his book is the next best thing.

As someone who did research, fact-checking, and preliminary runthoughs for Mark during the early stages of this book's making, I know firsthand how much work went into it. He went well out of his way to make this book simultaneously entertaining and enlightening. The book is obviously geared toward those who aren't math-oriented, but it would be a welcome addition to a math-lover's collection as well. Someone who has enjoyed John Allen Paulos's books "Immumeracy" and "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper," would definately appreciate this too.

This is a good all round book that looks at many different mathematical topics that we encounter in our everyday lives. It is very clearly explained and uses simple language minus the jargon. It looks at topics ranging from investments to geometry to finance but it is all explained in a thorough and structured way.It's worth noting that it's a book that does require a bit of patience - hey, it's a Maths book after all - but, it's patience well rewarded and your understanding of the topics will be greater having kept with it. It doesn't go too deeply into all component areas, but it's enough for the all round approach.So, why not five stars? Well, for me, there was a greater, disproportionate weighting to some topics, notably probability and gambling, which may be interesting for some, but not for all, and some chapters and anecdotes, for instance the ones that focused on concept understanding, could have gone into more detail.Overall though, it's a very accessible book and the author clearly worked hard to accomplish this task.

great maths book