Table of Contents
Introduction 12
Part 1 Shapes 15
1 The Beauty of Romanesco Broccoli 17
2 Measuring the Length of a Coastline: Not as Easy as It Sounds 19
3 Bubbles Are Fur and Efficient 21
4 Is There Math Behind Jackson Pollock's Paintings? 23
5 The Koch Snowflake 25
6 Are You Living in the Fourth Dimension? 27
7 Building a Better Conveyor Belt 31
8 The Mathematical Connection Between Your Shoelaces and Your DNA 33
9 What the Subway Map Leaves Out 35
10 Origami 37
11 There's Math Behind Your Tangled Cords 40
12 Why Bicycle Gears Are Different Sizes 42
13 Myth Busted: Raindrops Aren't Shaped Like Teardrops 45
14 Why Are Traffic Signs Different Shapes? 47
15 Why Is the Pentagon Building Shaped Like That? 49
16 Triangles 51
17 Why Are Manhole Covers Round? 53
18 LEGO Sets 55
19 Let's Go Fly a … Quadrilateral 57
20 What Do Herpes and Table Salt Have in Common? 59
21 Why Do Golf Balls Have Dimples? 63
22 Gauss and Pizza 65
23 Geodesic Domes 68
24 A Fictional Math Book? Yes 70
25 A Soccer Ball Is Mare Than Just a Ball 72
26 Rubik's Gube: A Toy, or a Mathematical Wonder? 74
27 Paper Sizes 77
28 Different Ways to Depict Earth on a Map 79
29 Packing M&M's 81
30 Tan grams 83
31 The Velvet Rope as a Mathematical Entity 85
32 How Do Suspension Bridges Hold Cars? 87
Part 2 Behavior 89
33 Why Do Buses Arrive in Bunches? 91
34 Stop Losing Money at the Casino 94
35 How Does a Movie Win an Oscar? 96
36 Staying Dry in the Rain 98
37 The Most Efficient Checkout Line 100
38 How to Study for the Turing Test 102
39 What Is a Sextant? 106
40 Splitting Op Rent 109
41 Cutting a Cake Fairly 112
42 Delivering Packages Efficiently 115
43 How Do Algorithms Affect Your Internet Experience? 117
44 Explaining the Monty Hall Problem 119
45 The Math Behind Juggling 122
46 Nash Equilibrium 124
47 The Math Behind a Flock of Starlings 126
48 Putting a Pile in Order 128
49 Math Gets Its Day in Court 130
50 What Does a 40% Chance of Rain Really Mean? 133
51 Math-Based Test-Taking Strategies 135
52 Your Immune System Can Do Math?! 137
53 How Google Translate Works 139
54 Don't Tailgate 141
55 Brazil Nut Effect 143
56 Myth Busted: More Roads Don't Mean Less Traffic 145
57 How Many Times Can You Fold a Sheet of Paper? 148
58 Yes, There Is a Better Way to Board an Airplane 150
Part 3 Patterns 153
59 Tessellations 155
60 There Are 177,147 Ways to Tie a Necktie 157
61 Little-Known Connections Between Music and Math 159
62 The Game of Go 161
63 Chessboard and Wheat 163
64 The Tower of Hanoi 165
65 Pigeonhole Principle 167
66 Mazes 169
67 How Many Clues Do You Need to Solve a Sudoku Puzzle? 171
68 Mathematical Patterns in Van Gogh's Work 173
69 Why It's a Mathematical Feat for You to Walk Across a Room 175
70 Information Theory 177
71 Your Social Media Jealousy Has Mathematical Roots 179
72 How an Audio Recording Becomes a Digital Music File 182
73 How Many Colors Do You Need to Make a Map? 184
74 Math Helps Create Your Kids' Favorite Movies 186
75 Candy Crush Saga 188
76 Did You Inhale Caesar's Last Breath? 190
77 How Do Computers Work? 192
78 The Math Behind Birthday Buddies 195
79 Bell Choirs and Math 198
80 Bayesian Statistics 200
81 Baseball and ERA 202
82 Bacterial Division 204
83 Astrolabes 206
84 Angle of Repose 208
Part 4 Special Numbers 211
85 What's All the Fuss about Pi? 213
86 Primes 215
87 Internet Security 218
88 The Wonder and Frustration of Infinity 220
89 Fibonacci Numbers in Nature 223
90 Dewey Decimal System 225
91 Random Numbers: Are They Really Random? 227
92 Powers of Ten 229
93 Metric System 231
94 Attoseconds 233
95 Golden Ratio in Art and Architecture 235
96 The Golden Ratio in Your DNA 238
97 Using a Kid's Toy to Make Epitrochoid Curves 241
98 The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Is Rooted in Math 243
99 Do Cicadas Use Math to Protect Their Species? 245
100 Base 2 247
Index 249