Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches from the Wonderful World of Mathematics (Paperback)

The Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize

The world of maths can seem mind-boggling, irrelevant and, let's face it, boring.

This groundbreaking book reclaims maths from the geeks. Mathematical ideas underpin just about everything in our lives: from the surprising geometry of the 50p piece to how probability can help you win in any casino. In search of weird and wonderful mathematical phenomena, Alex Bellos travels across the globe and meets the world's fastest mental calculators in Germany and a startlingly numerate chimpanzee in Japan.

Packed with fascinating, eye-opening anecdotes, Alex's Adventures in Numberland is an exhilarating cocktail of history, reportage and mathematical proofs that will leave you awestruck.

A journalist, author and mathematician, Alex Bellos was, for a time, the Guardian’s South American correspondent during which time he wrote Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life. Since returning to the UK he’s concentrated on writing about maths and science, writing the bestselling popular science books Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, Alex Through the Looking Glass, Can You Solve My Problems and the forthcoming Puzzle Ninja. He is also the author of a football series for children, Football School Season.