The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari

As the mathematics and physics editor of Science News, Peterson knows his topic thoroughly and writes with a flair that stimulates the imagination. Whether telling about snowflake-shaped drums; brilliant, eccentric Paul Erdoes's geometrical fantasies; or unbreakable and nearly unbreakable codes, he knows just when and where to open a topic a bit further to provoke greater insights. The eight gorgeous color plates and dozens of illustrations are well chosen and complement the text without overwhelming it.

Inevitably, The Jungles of Randomness touches on subjects as diverse as molecular biology, engineering, and entomology, but it stays rooted in the field from which our understanding of complexity first arose: mathematics. A fascinating and underreported field, math is finally getting the mainstream attention it has always deserved, and it's not hard to understand why with exciting books like this pointing the way. Where this will lead us is anyone's guess, but the die is cast. --Rob Lightner

Product Description
Praise for The Jungles of Randomness

"Ivars Peterson is, in short, the math teacher everyone wishes they had in high school." a Publishers Weekly

"When many people think about mathematicians, they imagine solitary scholars whiling away the hours . . . Ivars Peterson delightfully debunks that stereotype. Peterson shows that mathematicians are, increasingly, a gregarious bunch and that the problems they work on are vitally important to us. . . . Best of all, Peterson makes it fun." a Washington Post

"Peterson has honed his explanatory skills finely. He is a readable guide through the tangles of probability and random chance. The Jungles of Randomness will give some insight into one of the most fruitful areas where math meets practical living." a Christian Science Monitor

"Peterson finds a fascinating collection of circumstances where chance intervenes in our lives and in the world around us. Every reader, regardless of background, is bound to find something new and interesting in this book." a Robert Osserman Author of Poetry of the Universe

IVARS PETERSON is one of today's most popular math authors. He is the mathematics and physics editor of Science News, and the author of four previous books, including the bestselling The Mathematical Tourist and Islands of Truth: A Mathematical Mystery Cruise. Mr. Peterson received the award for "exceptional skill in communicating mathematics to the general audience" in 1991 from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics.

Before I go on, I have the urge to type these:

"Ah, but to all the other monkeys in the world, maybe the ape sitting at the keyboard DID recreate the Gutenberg Bible."

"When travelling in Europe, be wary of non-bottled potable water and, apparently, buy one get three free cheeseburgers."

There, I've gotten those off my chest. What do they have to do with this review? Well, Peterson here deals with odds--Odds and their contexts, like in coin flips and dice outcomes and hot hands for pro basketball players and random number generators on slot machines and such. The Chapters on Brownian Motion entitled "Trails of the Wanderer" and "Lifetimes of Chance" are great because he talks about the lottery and winning the lottery, how stocks in the stock market have some type of Brownian motion, magnets, dominoes, roulette wheels at casinos--you know all the interesting things a man ought to be attracted to, described in a punchy, easy to digest manner...

Each chapter is forwarded with a quote or poetry verse gleaned from classic literature, for example, the Chapter "Complete Chaos" has a part of a canto from Milton's "Paradise Lost".

Also the Color Plates show some awesome sights like the one depicting vibrations on the membrane shaped like a fractal snowflake and the visual representation of the output from a high speed random-number generator.

A few lay types may be put off by his mentioning of some musty mathematician or statistician here and there but, to his credit Peterson does not try to lay some indecipherable equation on the reader when he describes what said math or stat person is to his basic text. Or, in other words, no need for math anxiety unless you're generally anxious about a lot anyways...this ain't rocket science, people!

Well, actually, yes it could be, but you would not know it from the way Peterson has presented it in this fabulous read....


Popular Mathematics   June 29, 2004
Kurt M. Weber (Princeton, IN USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

In this work of popular mathematics, Ivars Peterson explains the phenomena and regularity underlying seemingly random occurrences in our lives. Dry wit and keen understanding of mundane episodes provide an impressing dissection of how even the most chance events are in fact due to phenomena that, though easily understood, interact in such complex ways as to be beyond our comprehension--producing the supposedly "random" results we perceive.

As with many attempts to popularize science, this book is very light on theory and equations, instead explaining the practical significance of its subject. However, it does provide many names and enough theory to serve as a jumping point for further investigation into such areas as chaos, fractal geometry, information theory, and more.


A Crowd Pleaser!   December 17, 1999
R. Bagula (Lakeside, Ca United States)
9 out of 14 found this review helpful

I can't believe I'm the first to reviw this book! I have found the information and references in this book to be very good. In most cases Ivars Peterson is one of the best new science and mathematics writers that I know of! I'm interested in chaos and fractals, but mathematics also is in this book. There seems to be a little of everything. There is even work by Mandelbrot that I hadn't read about. I can only fault that he didn't put in enough of the equations and code to produce the examples. Also a glossary of terms would be helpful. But it is a very good buy in paperback!


Snapshots of probability topics by science journalist   May 27, 2007
David J. Aldous (Alameda, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Consists of 2-3 page sections on topics (e.g. Chutes and Ladders as a Markov chain; Ramsey theory; coupled oscillators; error-correcting codes; Brownian motion and Levy flights) in probability and related areas of mathematics. The individual sections are clearly and interestingly explained by science journalist author who understands the mathematics. But compiling such magazine articles into a book gives it an overall choppy feel, jumping from topic to topic without sustained logical thread.


Plagerized hogwash   June 20, 2001
Monty Losee (Denver, CO USA)
10 out of 50 found this review helpful

Popular science books seem to be in vogue-- great for any legitimate scientists that sincerely want to get something across to "lay" people. But hacks gathering together a bunch of stuff to amaze us is worse than Ripley.

I wouldn't pass this book on to to a 4th grader.

Since you are interested in only raves, I am sure that this missile will quietly disappear