Do the Math! On Growth, Greed, and Strategic Thinking (Sage, 2012)

John K. White
Softcover, 350 pages

Do the Math! is a refreshing look at mathematical concepts and moral dilemmas in the increasingly more numerate world of everyday living. Aiming to popularize and inform with a serious yet often humorous approach, Do the Math does for numbers what Eats, Shoots, and Leaves does for words.

To learn more about everyday mathematics and the number-filled world around us, check out the prologue below.

Computers and Computing : From the abacus to ENIAC and beyond

More and more of everything today is done by computer, from databases that profile health, wealth, and our general likes and dislikes to loyalty cards that tabulate consumer purchases and correlate buying patterns to the social and gaming networks where we spend more and more of our spare time. With the increased importance of the Internet, the computer now ranks our web searches, suggests our friends, and provides real-time data on anything from stocks to sporting results. And that is just the tip of the computing iceberg. Here, we see how a computer works, from the abacus to ENIAC and beyond, including electronic amplification, Boolean arithmetic, and the fundamentals of programming.

About the author
John K. White received a B.Sc. in Applied Physics from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and a Ph.D. from University College Dublin, Ireland.

He has worked around the world as a physicist, lecturer, project manager, and computational analyst over a 25-year career. He has worked as a project manager and technical writer for Sun Microsystems, The Netherlands Organization, and Berminghammer Foundation Equipment, consultant for Interactive Image Technologies, ScotiaBank, and the Ontario Government, and as a lecturer and research fellow at University College Dublin, and has analyzed game playing strategies, from professional sports teams to the stock market as well as many other thought provoking systems.

He is also active in promoting physics and numeracy in schools, and has published widely in academic journals, contributed chapters to edited volumes, and authored numerous technical publications. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he grew up in Toronto, Canada, and now lives and works in Dublin.

Do the Math! On Growth, Greed, and Strategic Thinking

John K. White
Softcover, 350 pages, Sage Publications (2012)

Better numeracy, Do-it-yourself analysis, Social inclusiveness, Foster critical and strategic thinking, Uncomplicated mathematical discussion

Our world has become more complicated, and the notion of growth at any cost has led to constant economic uncertainty, a permanently stressed-out workforce, and everyday stories of government and corporate abuse. John K. White argues that a better knowledge of basic systems is needed to understand the world we live in, from pyramid scams to government bailouts, from sports leagues to stock markets, from the everyday to the seemingly complex.