The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus

The Mathematics of Christmas

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How do you apply game theory to select who should be on your Christmas shopping list ? Can you predict Her Majesty's Christmas Message? Will calculations show Santa is getting steadily thinner - shimmying up and down chimneys for a whole night - or fatter - as he tucks into a mince pie and a glass of sherry in billions of houses across the world?

Full of diagrams, sketches and graphs, beautiful equations, Markov chains and matrices, The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus brightens up the bleak midwinter with stockingfuls of mathematical marvels. And proves once and for all that maths isn't just for old men with white hair and beards who associate with elves.

Maths has never been merrier.

NOW WITH A BRAND NEW CHAPTER

Hannah Fry is quickly becoming the David Attenborough of maths.
Telegraph

About Hannah Fry

Hannah Fry is Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at Cambridge University. She is loved for her joyful ability to bring complex ideas to life with her signature sass, wit and warmth. Her broadcasting work includes The Rest is Science (Goalhanger) AI Confidential with Hannah Fry (BBC Two) The Future With Hannah Fry (Bloomberg - Emmy winning) The Secret Genius of Modern Life (BBC Two) Infinite Explorer (Nat Geo) and Curious Cases (BBC Radio 4) as well as the Grierson winning Making Sense of Cancer (BBC Two). She has written numerous articles for The New Yorker and is the author of multiple bestsellers including A Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything, The Mathematics of Love and the critically acclaimed Hello World. In 2026 she was selected as one of Time magazine's top 100 Creators and was awarded the Leelavati Prize for outstanding contributions to increasing public understanding of mathematics.

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