39 // Humble Pi

Humble Pi | ***** | is a book about math but KEEP READING PLEASE DON'T STOP READING because I promise it's not boring. Instead, the book is a collection of stories, anecdata, and historical misadventures which all stem from some basic math mistake or misunderstanding. Bridges fall. Planes turn off mid-air. A guy gets $12,000 worth of traffic tickets all at once, none of which are actually his.

It helps that author Matt Parker is an extremely solid writer with a gift for humor ranging from low-hanging cultural jokes to truly unforgivable (by which I mean awesome) nerd puns. Most importantly, though, the book highlights something I tell my students: No one does math perfectly; the whole point of the exercise is to work at the bleeding edge of competence so you can make new mistakes to learn from, which then expands the zone of competence. Or, as he puts it (loosely paraphrased):

--Matt Parker