
The Joy of x
A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Yen
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By:
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Steven Strogatz
About this listen
Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, and insight.
Whether he is illuminating how often you should flip your mattress to get the maximum lifespan from it, explaining just how Google searches the internet, or determining how many people you should date before settling down, Strogatz shows how math connects to every aspect of life. Discussing pop culture, medicine, law, philosophy, art, and business, Strogatz is the math teacher you wish you'd had. Whether you aced integral calculus or aren't sure what an integer is, you'll find profound wisdom and persistent delight in The Joy of x.
©2012 Steven Strogatz (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: John R. Pierce
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Behind the familiar surfaces of the telephone, radio, and television lies a sophisticated and intriguing body of knowledge known as information theory. This is the theory that has permitted the rapid development of all sorts of communication, from color television to the clear transmission of photographs from the vicinity of Jupiter. Even more revolutionary progress is expected in the future.
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Not bad, but...
- By Jane Doe on 06-26-20
By: John R. Pierce
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Quant Riddles
- The Greatest Collection of Challenging Math and Logic Puzzles
- By: Sohail Dudhia
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you like to solve riddles, puzzles and brain teasers? Do you think outside the box? Are you creative? Do you like to be challenged? If you answer yes to any of these questions then this book is for you! In this book you will be captured by pirates, measure time through burning a rope, look at a 4-dimensional cube, be involved in a gun duel, decide how to cross a bridge, journey through a desert, play poker and be abducted by aliens! This book is a collection of 100+ riddles and brain teasers to test your mathematical intuition. They are mostly quantitative in nature with some logic ...
By: Sohail Dudhia
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A New Way to Think
- Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness
- By: Roger L. Martin
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Over a stellar career, Roger Martin has advised the CEOs of some of the world's most successful companies. From the beginning, he noted that almost every executive he talked to had a "model"—a framework or way of thinking that guided their strategy and activities. But these models tended to become automatic, so much so that when one didn't work, the typical response was just to apply it again—with greater enthusiasm.
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Okay… a lot of people culture from the early 2010’s
- By Thammy M. on 06-03-23
By: Roger L. Martin
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No Calculator? No Problem!
- Mastering Mental Math
- By: Art Benjamin, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Art Benjamin
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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No Calculator? No Problem! Mastering Mental Math , award-winning professor of mathematics and celebrated “mathemagician” Arthur T. Benjamin delivers 10 fun-filled lessons on how to do math in your head with confidence, accuracy, and speed - sometimes faster than a calculator. By the end of Professor Benjamin’s lessons, you’ll be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers faster than ever before. And with your newfound skills, you’ll soon find yourself amazing other people and, perhaps more important, yourself.
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Excellent but need PDF
- By Majeed on 10-15-19
By: Art Benjamin, and others
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Getting Along
- How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)
- By: Amy Gallo
- Narrated by: Amy Gallo
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people dampens our creativity and productivity, degrades our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and causes us to disengage. In Getting Along, workplace expert and Harvard Business Review podcast host Amy Gallo identifies eight familiar types of difficult coworkers—the insecure boss, the passive-aggressive peer, the know-it-all, the biased coworker, and others—and provides strategies tailored to dealing constructively with each one.
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Getting Along
- By Anonymous User on 02-09-24
By: Amy Gallo
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Journey to the Edge of Reason
- The Life of Kurt Gödel
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable - continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life.
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Interesting story of a great mathematician
- By James Orlin on 04-28-22
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A Mind for Numbers
- How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)
- By: Barbara Oakley PhD
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to learning effectively - secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions - you just need the creativity to see them.
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Not quite what you expect
- By Sean P Ruggier on 07-20-22
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Math Without Numbers
- By: Milo Beckman
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an audiobook about math, but it contains no numbers. Math Without Numbers is a vivid, conversational, and wholly original guide to the three main branches of abstract math - topology, analysis, and algebra - which turn out to be surprisingly easy to grasp. This audiobook upends the conventional approach to math, inviting you to think creatively about shape and dimension, the infinite and infinitesimal, symmetries, proofs, and how these concepts all fit together. Join this freewheeling tour of the inimitable joys and unsolved mysteries of this curiously powerful subject.
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please leave your politics at home
- By david malaguti on 09-23-23
By: Milo Beckman
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Why Does E=MC2 and Why Should We Care
- By: Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw
- Narrated by: Jeff Forshaw
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In one of the most exciting and accessible explanations of The Theory of Relativity in recent years, Professors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw go on a journey to the frontier of 21st century science to consider the real meaning behind the iconic sequence of symbols that make up Einstein's most famous equation, exploring the principles of physics through everyday life.
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Needs a few Diagrams
- By Roy on 06-13-11
By: Brian Cox, and others
What listeners say about The Joy of x
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- Nicole Kimble
- 04-18-22
Good listen
Enjoyed the book. It was recommended by a friend and didn't disappoint. A great read if you liked or curious about math but don't understand the practical use of math. It does a great good pointing out the purpose of math in the real world that's not taught in school.
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- Uresh Vahalia
- 08-23-24
Interesting but fairly basic
Targeted at people who lack an intuitive grasp of math. Those who understand math will find a lot of the material too basic, but will still learn a few good tidbits
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- jimpgh@aol.com
- 11-12-19
Too short
Too Short. Is there a sequel? enjoyed it very much and will look for similar mathematics books.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Babumoshai
- 08-22-24
Incredible read
Amazing book that makes much of mathematics accessible and fun. One of the rare books that should get better with every read/listen.
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- Kalani Perry
- 02-04-23
Very interesting but diagrams are hard to follow sometimes
There are a lot of diagrams that aren’t always easy to imagine. A companion of illustrations would fix that.
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1 person found this helpful
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- eclectic reader
- 04-08-22
An imaginative and refreshing review of many interesting math ideas
Stepfather does a good job of connecting with my mind most of the time. I get new and fresh perspectives on many things. A pdf or image would have helped me during the set theory and infinity discussion.
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- Jean
- 03-15-22
Math needs unite!
I love this book! And I finally learned why I was taught calculus. All s
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- zepka
- 06-13-22
Great! Buy get the paper version if you can.
Another great book by Strogatz. He does a great job making math personable and fun. The only down size is the fact that having someone read you equations is not very easy to follow. Get the paper version instead. Also, read this one first before going to Infinite Powers, as that one deals with higher level math. This book is good for elementary level math.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ramil C. Wright
- 03-29-22
A good book to read but not a good AUDIBE book
This would be a good book to read on paper but only a good one to hear. It is clear from the (excellent) narrator that there are diagrams, images and formulas printed in the book that illustrate and illuminate the text but the listener can not see. This is particularly true in the sections on the geometric approximation of pi, limits, two holed torus shortest distances, and the Hilbert infinite hotel diagram. The section on conditional probability may have been the best part of the book as it is so often misused in medical and legal circles. Mathematics is a beautiful and elegant subject but deserves images to compliment words.
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- Curtis E. Weldon
- 04-08-23
Enjoyed and found it interesting
I don’t have a mathematical background but I found nuggets that were very interesting. The book is an easy listen.
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