100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Maths and the Arts

Discover the the unusual and unexpected application of maths that lies behind the arts.

We are invited to rethink how we see, or hear, the world around us, and to appreciate how simple maths can illuminate creativity

Maths and the arts are often thought to be poles apart, but this shows how intertwined they are and how numbers and calculations are vital to our everyday lives without us realising

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and formerly Professor of both Geometry and Astronomy at Gresham College, London. His previous books include The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book, Cosmic Imagery, the bestselling 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, The Book of Universes, and, most recently, 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport.

What can maths tell us about art and design? 
 
Professor John D. Barrow has all the answers. In 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Maths and the Arts, he shows us that mathematics and the arts are not so far removed from each other. He takes us on a 100-step tour, guiding us through art forms as various as sculpture, literature, architecture and dance, and reveals what maths can tell us about the mysteries of the worlds of art and design. 
 
We find out why diamonds sparkle, how many words Shakespeare knew and why the shower is the best place to sing. We discover why an egg is egg-shaped, why Charles Dickens crusaded against maths and how a soprano can shatter a wine glass without touching it... 
 
 Enlivening the everyday with a new way of looking at the world, this book will enrich your understanding of the maths and art that surround us in our day-to-day lives.

Mathletics

From the author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, a companion volume.

This is a really interesting and original premise that will certainly make you think again about what you know about sport and perhaps make you watch it in an entirely new light

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, Cosmic Imagery and The Book of Universes.

* How can sprinter Usain Bolt break his world record without running any faster? 
 
* Why do high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop? 
 
* What's the best strategy for taking penalties in football? 
 
* What statistical advantage do left-handed boxers have over their right-handed opponents? 
 
* And did you know that gymnasts can experience stronger g-forces than roller-coaster designers are allowed to create? 
 
John D. Barrow shows how maths can give us surprising and enlivening insights into the world of sports - essential reading for competitors, armchair enthusiasts and maths-lovers alike.

100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport

From the author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, a companion volume perfectly timed for the Olympic Games

What can maths tell us about sports? 
 
100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport sheds new light on the mysteries of running, jumping, swimming and points-scoring across the whole sporting spectrum. Whether you are a competitor striving to go faster or higher, or an armchair enthusiast wanting to understand more about your favourite sport, this is a fascinating read. Find out why high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop; how Usain Bolt could break his records without running any faster; what is the best strategy for taking football penalties; what are the effects of those banned skin-tight swimsuits; and last but not least, why the bounce of a Superball seems to defy Newton's laws of motion. 
 
Written for anyone interested in sport or simple mathematics, this book will enrich your understanding of sport and enliven your appreciation of maths.

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. He is the bestselling author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know.

What can maths tell us about sports? 
 
100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Sport sheds light on the mysteries of running, jumping, swimming and points scoring across the whole sporting spectrum. Whether you are a competitor striving to go faster or higher, or an armchair enthusiast wanting to understand more, this is a fascinating read with one hundred short pieces that range across a wide number of sports. Find out: 
 
* Why high-jumpers use the Fosbury Flop, 
 
* How fast Usain Bolt can ultimately run and how he could break his records without running any faster, 
 
* Whether there is a limit to human performance, 
 
* Who the strongest man or woman is, pound for pound, 
 
* Why there are so many different scoring systems in sport, 
 
* If a 100-kilogram mass weighs more in London than it does in Singapore, 
 
* What the best strategy for taking football penalties is, 
 
* What the effect of those banned skin-tight swimsuits are, 
 
* Why golf balls are dimpled, 
 
* And last, but not least, why does the bounce of a Superball seem to defy Newton's laws of motion. 
 
Written for anyone interested in sport or simple maths, this book will enrich your understanding of sport and enliven your appreciation of maths.

The Book of Universes

A book about universes - expanding, contracting, oscillating, time-travelling - from the bestselling author of 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know.

There can be few better guides to the bewildering array of potential universes, and none so readable or entertaining

Engrossing... He has a fluent and engaging style of writing and a good eye for an unusual quotation, and as a popularising historian of science, he is second to none

A stunning tour of potential universes, introducing us to the brilliant physicists and mathematicians who first revealed these startling possibilities... [and] the latest insights that physics and astronomy have to offer about our own universe

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe; The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing; The Constants of Nature; The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless; Timeless and Endless; The Artful Universe Expanded; New Theories of Everything; and Cosmic Imagery.

This is a book about universes. It tells a story that revolves around a single extraordinary fact: that Albert Einstein's famous theory of relativity describes a series of entire universes. Not many solutions to Einstein's tantalising universe equations have ever been found, but those that have are all remarkable. Some describe universes that expand in size, while others contract. Some rotate like a top, while others are chaotically unpredictable. Some are perfectly smooth, while others are lumpy. Some permit time travel into the past. Only a few allow life to evolve within them; the rest, if they exist, remain unknown and unknowable to conscious minds. 
 
Here, in The Book of Universes, we are confronted with the most fantastic and far-reaching speculations within the entire realm of science.

Key Images in the History of Science

Cosmic Imagery

In this lavishly illustrated book one of the UK's most distinguished scientists tells 
the story of science through 200 of the subject's key images.

A captivating pictorial and literary journey through the history of science... a must for every home. It is a book that will repay constant visits, and Bodley Head is to be congratulated on its lavish, robust production.

Barrow has found a vivid way to focus our attention on cutting-edge science, and there is an awful lot to learn already from this lusciously produced and captivating book.

Barrow highlights the power of pictures in discovering and understanding our universe... [and] true to his reputation for excellence in communicating science... this book is sure to provide enjoyable summer-time reading

Questions about the meaning of life, the universe... this book can probably answer the lot... spectacularly illustrated.

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Left Hand of Creation; The Origin of the Universe; The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Infinite Book, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything and, most recently, 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know. He is also the author of the award-winning play Infinities.

* Certain key images embody our understanding of life and the universe we inhabit. Some, like Robert Hooke's first microscopic views of the natural world, or the stunning images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, were made possible by our new technical capabilities. 
* Others, like the first graph, were breathtakingly simple but perennially useful. Vesalius's haunting pictures of the human anatomy were nothing less than works of art, while the simple diagram now known as Pythagoras' Theorem - proved by the ancient Babylonians, Chinese, Indians and Egyptians long before the Greeks themselves - lay the foundations for modern mathematics. 
* Many of these images have shattered our preconceptions about the limits and nature of existence: the first breathtaking pictures of the Earth from space stimulated an environmental consciousness that has grown ever since; the mushroom cloud from atomic and nuclear explosions became the ultimate symbol of death and destruction; the flying saucer came to represent the possibility of extraterrestrial life; while Mercator's flat map of the Earth coordinated an entire world-view. 
* Cosmic Imagery takes us on a tour through the most influential images in science. Each holds an important place in the growth of human understanding and carries with it a story that illuminates its origin and meaning. Together they reveal something of the beauty and truth of the universe, and why, so often, a picture is better than a thousand words.

Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know Brain Shot

BRAIN SHOTS: The byte-sized guide to all the things you didn't know you didn't know...

As people are saying on Twitter, this is a really smart idea. I'm not yet convinced by 'enhanced' ebooks, but I am immediately won over by the idea of abbreviated digital books, that can condense a big book/idea into a 'brain shot'. This to me speaks to how we read digitally, in short and fast jump-shots: or at least it is how I read digitally!

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University. John has written many books - this is his first Brain Shot.

'If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.' John von Neumann 
 
Mathematics can tell you things about the world that can't be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining Brain Shot answers a few essential questions about existence. It unravels the knotty, clarifies the conundrums and sheds light into dark corners. From winning the lottery, financial investment with Time Travellers and the weirdest football match ever to Sherlock Holmes, Elections, game theory, drunks, packing for your holiday and the madness of crowds; from chaos to infinity and everything in between, Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know has all the answers! 
 
BRAIN SHOTS: The byte-sized guide to all the things you didn't know you didn't know...

A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless

The Infinite Book

Everything you might want to know about infinity - in history and all the way to today's cutting-edge science.

A delight. Popular science doesn't come much better than this

Barrow brings his charm and wit to provide an account that is highly engaging

Science writing at its best. A cutting-edge scientist and a proven writer tackles a subject of infinite fascination. As page-turning as a detective story

If you enjoy a good intellectual wrestle, this book is for you

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, Cosmic Imagery and, most recently, The Book of Universes.

‘A delight. Popular science doesn’t come much better than this’ Independent 
 
Everything you might want to know about infinity - in history and all the way to today's cutting-edge science. 
 
Infinity is surely the strangest idea that humans have ever had. Where did it come from and what is it telling us about our Universe? Can there actually be infinities? Can you do an infinite number of things in a finite amount of time? Is the Universe infinite? 
 
 
Infinity is also the place where things happen that don't. What is it like to live in a Universe where nothing is original, where you can live forever, where anything that can be done, is done, over and over again? 
 
 
These are some of the deep questions that the idea of the infinite pushes us to ask. Throughout history, the infinite has been a dangerous concept. Many have lost their lives, their careers, or their freedom for talking about it. 
 
The Infinite Book will take you on a tour of these dangerous questions and the strange answers that scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and theologians have come up with to deal with its threats to our sanity.

The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits

Impossibility

'If you are fascinated by the limits of knowledge, you will be richly rewarded by this book' New Scientist

Barrow conducts a tour of many of the most interesting topics in recent popular science, giving most of them a new twist in the telling... Trying to improve our understanding of just what is possible, and what is not, seems a vital part of the enterprise our kind of consciousness has called science

[An] illuminating, well-written account... One can only wonder how Barrow can possibly make all these [concepts] fit together into a coherent story about the limits to science. Well, contrary to all expectations, he does make them fit, and in only 250 pages! So for about as good an account as youre going to get of where science stops, read this book

Delightful and fascinating... Impossibility is a thoughtful, careful, and insightful book that is presented in a skillfully woven narrative, guiding the reader gently through the thicket of logic, physics, and mathematics... If you are fascinated by the limits of knowledge, you will be richly rewarded by this book

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, Cosmic Imagery and, most recently, The Book of Universes.

What can we never do? Barrow looks at what limits there might be to human discovery, and what we might find, ultimately, to be unknowable, undoable, or unthinkable. Science is a big success story, but where will it end? And, indeed, will it end? Weaving together a tapestry of surprises, Barrow explores the frontiers of knowledge. We find that the notion of 'impossibility' has played a striking role in our thinking. Surrealism, impossible figures, time travel, paradoxes of logic and perspectives - all stimulate us to contemplate something more than what is. Using simple explanations, it shows the reader that impossibility is a deep and powerful notion; that any Universe complex enough to contain conscious beings will contain limits on what those beings can know about their Universe; that what we cannot know defines reality as surely as what we can know.

The Quest for Ultimate Explanation

Theories Of Everything

'Its scope is, appropriately, vast' Nature

An exhilarating journey that cuts across a vast terrain of conceptual landmarks: from physics to metaphysics, mathematics to philosophy, and from mythology to theology... Without a doubt an important, engaging and highly literate book

Bridges the gab between the research frontiers of theoretical physics and the aspirations of man to understand what is going on

Theories of Everything is a beautifully written and thoughtful attempt to make sense of this difficult area of enquiry

What an elegant exposition lies here: not for everyone, to be sure, but for those familiar with astronomer Barrow's rich background in mathematics and in the history and philosophy of science, a treasure of learning and insight

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Constants of Nature, The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, and Cosmic Imagery.

The Holy Grail of modern scientists is 'The Theory of Everything', which will contain all that can be known about the Universe - the magic formula that Einstein spent his life searching for and failed to find. In this elegant and exciting book, John D. Barrow challenges the quest for ultimate explanation.

The Constants Of Nature

'Fascinating - The major strength of the book lies in the diversity of topics discussed' Nature

His appeal lies in a winning way with historical anecdote and apt quotation and a forceful eloquence

Barrow is a fantastic storyteller. The book is full of wonderful moments, vignettes that you will want to remember

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including The Origin of the Universe, The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing, The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, New Theories of Everything, Cosmic Imagery and, most recently, The Book of Universes.

The constants of nature are the numbers that define the essence of the Universe. They tell us how strong its forces are, and what its fundamental laws can do: the strength of gravity, of magnetism, the speed of light, and the masses of the smallest particles of matter. They encode the deepest secrets of the Universe and express at once our greatest knowledge and our greatest ignorance about the cosmos. Their existence has taught us the profound truth that Nature abounds with unseen regularities. Yet, while we have become skilled at measuring the values of these constants, our frustrating inability to explain or predict their values shows how much we still have to learn about the inner workings of the Universe. 
 
What is the ultimate status of these constants of Nature? Are they truly constant? Could life have evolved and persisted if they were even slightly different? And are there other Universes where they are different? 
 
These are some of the issues that this book grapples with. It looks back to the discoveries of the first constants of Nature and the impact they had on scientists like Einstein. This book also tells the story of a tantalising new development in astronomy. For the first time astronomical observations are suggesting that some of the constants of Nature were different when the Universe was younger. So are our laws of Nature slowly changing? Is anything about our Universe immune from the ravages of time? Are there any constants of Nature at all?

The Book Of Nothing

'Barrow explains nothing with great clarity, a lovely lightness of touch and enormous erudition' Spectator

The startling story of the West's intellectual struggle with the concept of zero is told with admirable elegance and clarity

When it comes to explaining the trickiest ideas John Barrow goes the extra mile which helps you to understand when going on

An entertaining and informative account of how the zero came into being in ancient civilisations such as the Babylonian and Egyptian...I am happy to report that nothing is full of interesting reading

How do you begin to understand the concept of nothing? 
 
Where does it begin and where does it end? 
 
From the zeros of the mathematician to the void of the philosophers, from Shakespeare to the empty set, from the ether to the quantum vacuum, from being and nothingness to creatio ex nihilo, there is much ado about nothing at the heart of things. 
 
Recent exciting discoveries in astronomy are shown to shed new light on the nature of the vacuum and its dramatic effect upon the explanation of the Universe. This remarkable book ranges over every nook and cranny of nothingness to reveal how the human mind has had to make something of nothing in every field of human enquiry.

John D. Barrow

'If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.' John von Neumann 
 
Mathematics can tell you things about the world that can't be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining Brain Shot answers a few essential questions about existence. It unravels the knotty, clarifies the conundrums and sheds light into dark corners. From winning the lottery, financial investment with Time Travelers and the weirdest football match ever to Sherlock Holmes, Elections, game theory, drunks, packing for your holiday and the madness of crowds; from chaos to infinity and everything in between, Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know has all the answers! 
 
BRAIN SHOTS: The byte-sized guide to all the things you didn't know you didn't know...

John D. Barrow

Books by John D. Barrow

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