I've not seen this book myself, but if Steven Strogatz endorses it I figure it must be worth passing along:
http://streetfightingmath.com/
Here's a promotional trailer for it:
It's also a course over at EdX:
https://www.edx.org/course/mitx/mitx-6-sfmx-street-fighting-math-1501
Finally, there is an interesting review of the book in AMS Notices here:
http://www.ams.org/notices/201107/rtx110700960p.pdf
It starts off somewhat negatively, and than wavers back-and-forth between positive and negative points, before concluding as follows:
"…'Street-Fighting Mathematics' is an engaging, well-written, insightful book. I do know that the book will provide any reader with new tools for making quick estimates and will introduce new ways of viewing problem solving. And I do know that I will read this book again. And again. And again. And maybe one day I will take the leap and actually use these methods to solve a problem."
1 comment:
It's worth mentioning, I think, that Deschamp muffs--or at least mis-types--a calculation: 10.29 should be 10.92 on page 961 (left column, about 3/4 of the way down). And there are easier ways to get to 10.9 than the street-fighting way with all the deltas and whatnot: .08 of 5 is .4 and .25 of 2 is .5. Add those to 2x5 and 10.9 falls into your lap pretty easily (sans deltas).
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