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Guesstimation: Solving The World's Problems On The Back Of A Cocktail Napkin (2008)

by Lawrence Weinstein(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0691129495 (ISBN13: 9780691129495)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Princeton University Press

review 1: I understand base ten, took algebra, calculus, and trig in high school (and got good grades at those), and have studied probability and statistics in college (at both the Bachelor's and Master's levels), so even though math isn't my strong suit, I am fairly competent at it. But I was confused by page 4 of this book - the authors present an equation and then the answer without the crosswalk between the two. Skimming ahead, I see that this book and I are not going to get along at all. One question requires an idea of how much food costs - the authors estimate it at somewhere more than 5% and less than 50% of a person's income and then pick a percent in between at random. That is how most of the answers in this book are figured. I find wildly random guesses like that complete... morely useless. Even my husband, who does statistical analysis for a living was impatient with this book and couldn't get through it.
review 2: This book is meant to be read fast, the reader dwelling on physics formulas and arithmetic only in intriguing areas. It is a book of big numbers; you understand logarithms inadvertently by its end. The book covered high-school physics well; it contains "word problems" about size, speed, astronomy, electricity, pressure--all the fun stuff. Lots of conversions to standard metric units. Handy technique for quickly estimating using the mean of exponents. Examples of problems: What percentage of U.S. land mass would need to be covered with solar panels to supply our current power needs? and How many people in the world are currently brushing their teeth? Sometimes silly questions, but there is always the underlying point that we are a lot of people and our small actions add up hugely. Be warned that the book is rife with corny humor that occasionally evokes chortles. less

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