Why Do Buses Come in Threes: The Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life

by Jeremy Wyndham and Rob Eastaway

Book Overview

Deals in a very entertaining way with problems in normal life related to mathematics, luck, coincidence, gambling. ? The Independent (London)

Why do your chances of winning the lottery increase if you buy your ticket on Friday? Why do traffic lights always seem to be red when you?re in a hurry? Is bad luck just chance, or can it be explained?

The intriguing answers to these and other questions about the curiosities of everyday life can...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471379077
• ISBN13: 9780471379072
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Amazing little book on mathematics of daily life. Superb!

This lovely little book never fails to bring revelation as I read through the chapters. Praise should be given to the authors, not only for their insights in revealing the mathematical basis of ordinary issues, but also for their enthusiasm in promoting popular science through this successful work. Interesting examples from daily life capable of arousing curiosity were utilized to illustrate otherwise "serious" mathematical concepts: temperature of shower water (negative-feedback), dating (game-theory), "wonder numbers" in nature (golden ratio), bad luck (probability)......etc. Concepts were well-elaborated, conducted in a comprehensive and attractive, but never shallow or over-simplified, manner. The authors were just good at alluring readers to think and explore things more than "skin-deep", beyond what they seems like at surface. The writing style is attractive and humorous. This book is of immense value in enhancing reasoning, critical thinking and, most importantly, appreciation of life itself. Highly recommended.

Fascinating book

While I was originally turned off by the title, which not only suggested an extremely narrow subject matter, but seemed pointed toward a younger audience (I have degrees in computer science and mathematics), I ended up reading it with great enthusiasm, usually unable to put it down for two or more hours at a time. The authors have searched far and wide for mathematical 'optical-illusions' that occur in a very broad range of everyday matters. To put the sheer amount of subject matter crammed into this modestly sized book into perspective, the question posed by the title takes only a page or a page and a half of the book. The author(s) go from topic to topic quite rapidly, insuring that readers will never get bored. If you want indepth information, you're free to go elsewhere, but in few other places will you find so many amusing and surprising mathematical tidbits in one place. This is a book that belongs on every elementary- and undergraduate-level instructor's bookshelf. What I remember most about my early education and what prompted me to go further in mathematics were the unintuitive ideas such as are presented in this book so well and so entertainingly. The 'birthday phenomenon' is a good example of a completely unintuitive phenomenon described by Eastaway; take a class of more than a mere 23 students, and there is a greater than 50% chance two of them will have the same birthday. How can this be so? There are 365 days in a year! There is a simple, easily understandable explanation to this. (And to illustrate my earlier point, this was honestly the only specific thing I remembered my professor explaining from my intro to statistics class). There are probably a hundred or so examples of such mysteries presented in this book. I sincerely believe readers at all levels will enjoy the content as much as I did.

An excellent reminder about why maths is fun

The two messages of this book are that mathematics is important to everyday life, and that it's fun. Like the earlier books of Martin Gardener, this book aims to make mathematics relevant and accessible, but with a British rather than American slant. Have you ever wondered why flowers often have five petals, how bookies' odds work, how you always end up in the slowest queue, or, indeed, why buses come in threes? If so, then this is the book for you. In the course of a humorous, chatty discourse on the mysteries of life the authors introduce a number of branches of mathematics, including probability, topology, statistics and queuing theory, to name just a few. To aid casual readers or those who've previously found the subject forbidding the maths is kept at a fairly simple level. However there's still enough detail to be useful in other applications. I used this book as a reminder when trying to solve a problem related to software performance, and others who don't exercise their maths every day might also find it a useful memory jogger. Whether as an introduction if you've never enjoyed maths before, or a reminder if you have, I thoroughly recommend this book. I can also recommend the companion volume "How Long is a Piece of String?"

Great picture of the diversity of mathematics!

This book contains a great mixture of examples of applications of math to different areas. My favorites was learning why coins that are not round have an odd number of edges! Their example is the British 50 pence piece, which has seven rounded sides.I think this book gives a great introduction to what mathematics is all about, and will be of interest to both mathematicians and non-mathematicians. Just read it!

how come buns come in dozens but weiners come in eights?

this is an entertaining look at math and how it permeates our lives and pervades nature. the authors cover a variety of topics ranging from explaining coincidences to why we always get stuck in traffic jams. the best chapter is ch.1, titled Why can't I find a four leaf clover? they explain how Fibonacci's series turn up so often in plants (the number of petals, for example, is always a, or a multiple of, a fibonacci number), as well as the golden ratio, pi, and why cells in beehives are shaped like hexagons. the pervasiveness of hidden mathematics in nature can make one wonder whether there's an intelligence behind it all.the book also contains a number of mathematical formulas. i remember reading somewhere that for every equation given in a book, sales drop by 5000 (or some number like that). Hopefully that won't happen here.