Book Description
K. C. Cole's bestseller "provides fresh insights
into the crucial role that mathematics plays" in our
lives (San Francisco Chronicle). Mathematics, that
breathtaking invention of ours that reveals the tiniest
particles of matter and takes us to the outermost reaches of
the cosmos, is found by many people to be intimidating. In
The Universe and the Teacup, K. C. Cole demystifies
mathematics and shows us-with humor and wonderfully
accessible stories-why math need not be frightening. Using
the O. J. Simpson trial, the bell curve, and Emmy Noether,
the nineteenth-century woman scientist whose work was
essential for Einstein's theory of relativity, Cole helps us
see that more than just being a tool, math is a key to
understanding the beauty of everything from rainbows to
relativity.