Why Pi?

Why Pi?
Published at DK Canada

About the book

This entertaining follow-up to DK's popular Go Figure!, Why Pi? presents even more mind-bending ways to think about numbers. This time, author Johnny Ball focuses on how people have used numbers to measure things through the ages, from the ways the ancient Egyptians measured the pyramids to how modern scientists measure time and space.

Johnny Ball has hosted more than 20 UK children's television series about math and science. He is known for making math not just easy to understand, but genuinely fun and fascinating. His shows and videos earned him a New York international EMMY nomination, a BAFTA, and 10 other awards. He has written five children's books, including DK's Go Figure!, and an educational musical. His academic credentials include three honorary science doctorates and fellowship of the British Mathematical Association.

My Thoughts

Contrary of what the title might make you think, this book is not only about Pi!    It covers all the various possibilities on how mathematic can apply to the everyday life.

With the help of fabulous images and illustrations, you will understand on how math has come to be a big part of our daily lives whether you realize it or not.   Yes this book start with the beginning of times (the stone ages is mentioned) but you can still grasp how math has changed the lives of people on the planet for centuries.  You will discover hoe the pyramids were build, how the Egyptians measure their land, how the Greeks  used angles, how the stars were used to determined where the boats were on the seas, how the Romans discovered the advantages of semicircular arches, how aqueducts were built, how to make your own sundial and much more.  

Whether you need to measure, weight or do some experiments, the mathematical concepts will be useful.  This book will also highlights how Galileo,  Newton,  and many others helped to develop more mathematical concepts.   You will also learn how it helps to map the world,  how to measure energy, how to identify what temperature it is,  how to determine the speed of light and much more!  Throughout the book you will also find some fun experiments to do with your kids.

This book is so much more than just Pi and it will help you to discover the important of math in our lives.   At the end of the book, you will also discover some weird and wonderful measurements like the knot, the elephant, the Scoville scale and other out-of-the-ordinary ones.  For example, did you know that there is such a thing as the Big Mac index.   It was invented by economists to compare the spending power of different currencies.   To discover how it works, I suggest that you go to its Wikipedia page.  Who would have thought that the Big Mac price would help to determine the spending power of currencies…

This book is full of interesting facts about math and its influence in our lives.   I recommend it for everyone loving mathematics, for homeschoolers to learn more about math (not just for learning adding, subtracting, multiplying, and division!) or just for pure fun reading.

Why Pi? is available at your favourite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned products for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.