I purchased this book shortly after it was published in 1999. It sat in my home for many weeks seemingly looking at me and almost looking DOWN at me. I was afraid to approach it. It was intimidating...and I substitute teach middle school math! What if I couldn't "get" this book?

Part of the beauty of "The Universe and the Teacup" is that everyone will get it. It literally makes math fun and a thing of beauty. This book demonstrates how math is useful in day-to-day matters and thinking. It will give the reader a new appreciation of the value of mathematics.

K.C. Cole is a science writer for the Los Angeles Times and won an award for Best Science Writing from the American Institute of Physics. Ms. Cole is amazing in the way she takes the mystery out of math while demonstrating the romance of the science.

This is accomplished by taking what would appear to be difficult axioms which may appear abstract and applying them to everyday life in situations. The effect makes them very concrete. Ms. Cole revels in the fact that mathematics is a human invention and perhaps the greatest one of all time. She explains how math basically unlocks our mental doors and breaks mind barriers. She believes math is the basis for much our civilizations most important information and knowledge.

Ms. Cole tackles relevant topics and explains them thoroughly using mathematical principles and formulas such as population growth (exponential growth), the O.J. Simpson trial (probable truth), Lani Guinier's famous and complex views on voting rights (Arrow's impossibility theorem), gambling and smoking (correlation and causation), acts of kindness (game theory), earthquake and other nature studies (predictions) and several others. How does Einstein's theory of relativity and studies of symmetry translate to humans? K.C. Cole explains this and much more with interesting and provocative examples.

This book puts the sometimes scary subject of math in Play-Doh form...you can touch it, twist it, squeeze it. This helps the read get a better grasp on what it feels like and what is inside. Theories and principles that seem so confounding and out of reach are perfectly sensible and logical with Cole's analysis and examples.

Simply put Ms. Cole's writing on the subject of mathematics is elegant, solid and easy to comprehend. Her book opens doors of new understanding to the value of math in daily lives. Cole enables the reading to ponder physics, comprehend the cosmos and enjoy a new appreciation of arithmetic.

I have read and re-read this book because I enjoy it so much. It is hard to explain how enjoyable Ms. Cole can make the subject of mathematics but she manages to do so with seemingly no effort; her writing is simply that good. This book gives a reader a sense of learning and accomplishment without an iota of drudgery. I find myself looking at ordinary aspects of life and seeing the mathematical principles behind them. Such vision helps to put some order in places where order never seemed to be. Reading this book is so fulfilling in part because after you read it and later when you witness the principles in daily life you'll find yourself saying "I get it!"




If you'd like, please check out some of my other book reviews:

The Kennedy Women
http://www.epinions.com/content_113209609860



Quentins
http://www.epinions.com/content_110845595268

Maneater
http://www.epinions.com/content_110309576324

The Night of January 16th
http://www.epinions.com/content_107452403332

Capital Classics-Recipes from the Jr. League of Wash. DC
http://www.epinions.com/content_104334921348

All the Presidents' Children
http://www.epinions.com/content_103249317508

The Last Brother - a biography of Ted Kennedy
http://www.epinions.com/content_91330743940

The Patriarch - The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty
http://www.epinions.com/content_91067551364

Catch Me If You Can
http://www.epinions.com/content_89177558660

Embers
http://www.epinions.com/content_88622927492

Lindbergh
http://www.epinions.com/content_88079175300

Mrs. Bridge
http://www.epinions.com/content_87304081028

Mr. Bridge
http://www.epinions.com/content_87096659588

Recommended: Yes