Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 The reality behind the stories September 16, 2007
Trounce Alley (Austin, Texas)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Well written, interesting, and informative - this book provides a good balance between education and entertainment. By explaining the concepts behind the episodes of the television series Numb3rs, it spurs the reader to further exploration of the wonderous world of mathematics.
A Down-to-Earth Overview of Uses of Advanced Mathematics March 7, 2008
G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Books on mathematics that are aimed at the general reader can often contain ideas that may be difficult to grasp for some - especially books that flirt with advanced mathematics. Not this book. Here, the authors do an absolutely excellent job in explaining potentially difficult mathematical concepts in down-to-earth terms and using them in the real world, i.e., in this case, solving crimes. Various episodes of the TV series NUMB3RS often serve as introductions to some of these concepts; these episodes also serve as great practical examples as to how these concepts can be used. The writing style is quite authoritative but very friendly, accessible and engaging. Analogies are used throughout in order to help drive home difficult points. This excellent book will likely be of interest not only to math and science buffs, but also to anyone who is curious about the use of advanced mathematics is solving crimes.
Applied mathematics on TV August 7, 2008
F. William Weaver (Greeley, CO)
This book is an excellent resource to help show the successes and failures of applied mathematics in forensic science. I plan to use this book as a resource to show students that mathematics has a very practical side.
 Read the book. Watch the show. August 29, 2007
Polymath-In-Training (Olive Branch, MS United States)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
If you watch the TV show Numbers, you'll enjoy reading this book. If you read this book, you'll enjoy watching the TV show.
My wife, who hates math (and is admittedly very poor at it), and I, who love math, both started watching this show from the first episode. She enjoys the show as much as I do. This book, which uses some of the episodes from the show for illustration, does a very fine job of discussing some of the mathematics used on the show. But it does more than that. It discusses the mathematics used by real law enforcement, the CIA, NSA, FBI, courts, etc.
I think one of the strengths of this book is that it corrects a misunderstanding about mathematics, which is that mathematics is identical to arithmetic. Or another misunderstanding, which is that math uses just numbers. Math is much more than that; it's more than algebra or geometry or even calculus. This book discusses a few of these additional areas, such as graph theory, geographic profiling, and Bayesian inference. It has just enough math to be interesting to the wannabe mathematician (like me) and enough good explanations and analogies to be interesting to everyone.
California reader September 18, 2007
California reader (California)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I loved this book. Although I am not a mathematical person, I have watched the show since it started. the book really show you what math can do in the real world and is understandable and extremely interesting for non math types like me.
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