The first ever maths book to be a No.1 Bestseller shows us what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world

What makes a bridge wobble when it’s not meant to? How do billions of dollars
mysteriously vanish into thin air? How does a building rock when its resonant
frequency matches a gym class leaping to Snap’s 1990 hit I’ve Got The Power? The answer is maths. Or, to be precise, what happens when maths goes wrong in the real world.

As Matt Parker shows us, our modern lives are built on maths- computer
programmes, finance, engineering. And most of the time this maths works
quietly behind the scenes, until … it doesn’t. Exploring and
explaining a litany of glitches, near-misses and mishaps involving the
internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman empire and a hapless Olympic shooting team, Matt Parker shows us the bizarre ways maths trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. This book shows how, by making maths our friend, we can learn from its pitfalls. It also contains puzzles, challenges, geometric socks, jokes about binary code and three deliberate mistakes. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.