Monday, February 20, 2017

Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to be Wrong *** 1/2

Jordan Ellenberg is a mathematics professor who writes on mathematical subjects in the popular press. The subtitle of the book is "The Power of Mathematical Thinking."

Ellenberg has a clear, relaxed writing style and a talent for choosing clear examples of real-world situations where mathematical thinking comes in to play. I found the book both entertaining and informative. The only reason I haven't given it a higher rating is that its scope is mostly limited to probability and statistics, with only small forays into the more certain areas of math. (Admittedly, the study of uncertainty applies more commonly to everyday issues.) The discussion also wandered a bit.

His examples drive home the point that small sample sizes show greater variance, and that studies often focus on the outliers so that regression to the mean is a likely explanation for changes. I also learned about the asymmetric domination effect.

No comments:

Post a Comment