Figuring It Out

The power and beauty of mathematics explained through short stories in an amusing way that everybody can easily follow.

What makes A4 paper so interesting? Maths. Folding a sheet of A4 paper in half turns it into an A5. Conversely, putting two pieces of A4 together, make it an A3. Th e explanation can be found in this compendium of funny and puzzling stories by leading Portuguese researcher and professor Nuno Crato. Explained in a way that everybody can understand, this is a book for enticing schoolchildren and inspiring teachers craving for everyday examples of maths in action. A set of short essays tells of mathematicians who spend years on end searching for the best way to pile oranges, confusion on roads occurring when the rules of Cartesian geometry are ignored, heroes who encode their messages and villains who try to steal secrets.