the freakonomics of matha mathworld superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands the math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned in how not to be wrong jordan ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is math isnt confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life but rather touches everything we dothe whole world is shot through with it math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world its a science of not being wrong hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument armed with the tools of mathematics we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted how early should you get to the airport what does public opinion really represent why do tall parents have shorter children who really won florida in 2000 and how likely are you really to develop cancer how not to be wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more using the mathematicians method of analyzing life and exposing the hardwon insights of the academic community to the laymanminus the jargon ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space from the everyday to the cosmic encountering among other things baseball reaganomics daring lottery schemes voltaire the replicability crisis in psychology italian renaissance painting artificial languages the development of noneuclidean geometry the coming obesity apocalypse antonin scalias views on crime and punishment the psychology of slime molds what facebook can and cant figure out about you and the existence of god ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need math as ellenberg says is an atomicpowered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense vastly multiplying its reach and strength with the tools of mathematics in hand you can understand the world in a deeper more meaningful way how not to be wrong will show you how