How Math Can Save Your Life: (And Make You Rich, Help You Find the One, and Avert Catastrophes) - Hardcover

by James D. Stein (Author)

How to make lots of money, keep yourself safe, and even save the world-all by using a little simple math

Forget the dull, boring math you learned in school. This book shows you the powerful things math can do for you, with applications no teacher ever taught you in algebra class. How can you make money off credit card companies? Will driving a hybrid save you money in the long run? How do you know when he or she is ""the one""?

From financial decisions to your education, job, health, and love life, you'll learn how the math you already know can help you get a lot more out of life.

• Gives you fun, practical advice for using math to improve virtually every area of daily life
• Includes straightforward explanations and easy-to-follow examples
• Written by the author of the successful guide, How Math Explains the World

Filled with practical, indispensable guidance you can put to work every day, this book will safeguard your wallet and enrich every aspect of your life. You can count on it!

Front Jacket

Forget algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. Even if you've never been a whiz at math, you can save lots of money and make your life better in all kinds of ways simply by using the basic arithmetic you learned when you were in grade school. How Math Can Save Your Life shows you how.

Would refinancing your house actually save you money? Which car insurance policy is the best deal? Is Internet dating worth it? This practical, thought-provoking book does the math to help you answer these and a whole host of other everyday, real-world questions. It also lets you see how to apply math to tackle all kinds of vexing issues, from the quirky (Why are women thought of as fickle while men are regarded as steadfast? What are the chances that extraterrestrials will attack the Earth?) to the philosophical (How much is a human life worth in dollars? When will the world end?).

Along the way, you will learn the crucial concept of expected value, the single most useful idea in mathematics, and one that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to you over your lifetime. You'll be able to spot common mistakes people make when using percentages or constructing a logical argument. You'll also get a fresh take on the purpose and process of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division that will give you a new respect for these math workhorses and give you a head start if you ever need to teach them to kids.

So, should you spend the money to buy this book? If you let the numbers guide you, you'll do a simple risk/reward calculation and find that the answer is to head straight over to checkout. It will be worth it. You can count on it!

Back Jacket

Are service contracts for electronics just a scam?

Should your lottery ticket contain numbers greater than 31?

How do you know when he or she is "the one"?

"How Math Can Save Your Life" shows you how to use basic arithmetic to answer these and many other questions that come up in everyday life. You'll discover how simple math can make you lots of money, keep you safe, and even save the world. Not bad for something you learned back in grade school.

Filled with practical, indispensable guidance you can put to work every day, this book will safeguard your wallet and enrich every aspect of your life.

"Even if you hated math in school, you'll like this book. Jim Stein presents math the way I wish my teachers had: as a practical tool that can be used to solve everyday problems in the real world. Using down-to-earth langauge and real-life examples, Stein shows how even quick, back-of-the-envelope math can help us avoid costly errors."
--Joseph T. Hallinan, author of Why We Make Mistakes

"Stein pulls off a literary hat trick by writing a book about mathematics that is fun, friendly and factual. It's the definitive answer to the student's question, 'When will I ever need this stuff?'"
--Leonard Wapner, author of The Pea and the Sun: A Mathematical Paradox

Learn how a little math can help:

Avert disasters

Beat the bookies

Boost your grades

Extend your life expectancy

Fix the economy

Improve your love life

Make you rich

Win arguments

And much more!

Author Biography

James D. Stein is the author of "How Math Explains the World: A Guide to the Power of Numbers, From Car Repair to Modern Physics" and is a professor of mathematics at California State University, Long Beach. A graduate of Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, he has taught college math for more than forty years.