Math Illuminated: A Visual Guide to Calculus and Its Applications (4 book series)
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Math Illuminated: A Visual Exploration of Ideas and Applications
Join Ben Orlin, the beloved math blogger and author of the underground bestseller Math with Bad Drawings, on a whimsical and enlightening journey through the world of mathematics. Orlin’s unique blend of humor, storytelling, and unforgettable stick figures brings complex concepts to life, making math accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
From the fundamentals of calculus to the intricacies of game theory, Math Illuminated explores a wide range of mathematical ideas. Discover the hidden beauty of equations, the power of logical thinking, and the unexpected ways math shapes our daily lives. Whether you’re a math enthusiast or simply looking to sharpen your mind, this book offers a fresh and engaging perspective on the subject.
With captivating stories, interactive games, and Orlin’s signature wit, Math Illuminated is a must-read for anyone curious about the fascinating world of mathematics.
45 reviews for Math Illuminated: A Visual Guide to Calculus and Its Applications (4 book series)
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J. Bassett (verified owner) –
OK, with the title of “Math with Bad Drawings,” I’m not quite sure what I expected, but I’m not disappointed. It is not heavy on the math, meaning there is enough English to make reading it enjoyable.
I haven’t sat down and read the book yet; I’ve done the “let’s check out this part” routine. I plan on starting it this weekend. I don’t have the book in front of me, but there is one chapter about Darth Vader’s Death Star that I’m looking forward to reading.
Once I’m finished, the rating may increase. 🙂
Kindle Customer (verified owner) –
This looks like a really interesting book. (If you open the preview, you can see the first couple of pages of each section by clicking on the section head in table of contents. Does that work all the time?) I normally buy books like this for my middle school grand kids and their teachers (I hope they’ll keep the book around until they’re old enough to understand it. However, I think the target market is college age kids so I didn’t because the paper book is kind of pricey. I normally send ebooks in that case but the ebook was above my normal 9.99 max. However, if you know some college kid struggling with higher math issues, might buy it. BTW: No option to download a sample. Sigh. (Yes, I’m an Amazon author and understand the system.)
Piaw Na (verified owner) –
Sometimes, I’ll watch as Bowen puts down an advanced book he’s been reading, and revert to reading a pre-school book more suitable to his brother. I call those moments “taking a stupid pill.” It’s fun to do something easy once in a while, just so you can reassure yourself that the things you knew were the things you knew.
Math with Bad Drawings is a great book to read when you’re taking a stupid pill. It covers all math/statistics/probability you already know, including probability, statistics, etc. In the opening chapter he covers Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe, which is a fun game that I’ve now taught to my wife and Bowen. That, alone was worth the cost of the book.
The drawings are pretty bad, and even worse on the kindle edition. Sometimes I didn’t even bother zooming in to read the cartoons, because they’re not very funny anyway. Much of the coverage is rather pedestrian, though if you haven’t been reading too many science books they might not be familiar to you. There’s a section on trusses that’s fun, and in an obvious homage to Martin Gardner, a description of the game of life, though unfortunately, at a rather shallow level.
Would I recommend this over a Martin Gardner book? No. But if you’re having a day when you took a stupid pill, this book is much more accessible than Martin Gardner, and is much more readable. Hey, how often would you find a math book I’d recommend that would make for a light airplane read? Recommended.
Boutros Ghassibi (verified owner) –
Fun to read. A little slow for an adult.
A lot of witty sarcasm; a little too much for me.
MikeyMommy (verified owner) –
I am a middle school math teacher and I cannot say enough great things about this book. It is written with humor and in a style to be understood and appreciated by any adult, math inclined or not. I left it sitting on the kitchen table and my 11-year-old began flipping through it, drawn-in by the cute and quirky illustrations. He became engrossed, reading about complex math topics for longer than I ever would have predicted. If more adults could appreciate math in this way, and pass that appreciation on to their kids, we’d have a more math-literate society. Everyone, please, read this book! You won’t regret it.
Fran R (verified owner) –
this is a great fun way to think about the many ways that math is part of our lives. i’ve been trying to figure out how to incorporate it into middle school math, so if anyone out there has some ideas…
Placeholder (verified owner) –
I don’t recall ever writing an Amazon review for anything. Ever. And given that most of my disposable income somehow finds itself in the mitts of this site that is quite a statement.
What prompted me to write this review was something that I had never thought possible. While reading Mr Orlin’s excellent tome on math(s) (I’m English…..I’ll always be maths). “What was that?” I hear you clamor. Well, what we have here is a book about mathematics that actually made me laugh out loud. Yes, a math(s) book. Yes, a book about math(s). Laugh. Heartily. Page 153, paragraph 4 to be exact, about 10 minutes prior to me posting this review. In the probability section. Ironically the probability of me laughing while reading a math(s) book should really be close to zero but as Mr Orlin takes pains to make clear, sometimes low probability things happen. And happen it did. To me and to a certain Mrs Clinton as outlined on page 153.
I’m just less than half way through this fantastic book and I already believe in equal parts that Mr Orlin and his (no so bad) drawings are both a national treasure and that he should be given complete control over all school curriculums.
Yes, it is that good. I mean he made me laugh. Out loud. While reading a math(s) book.
Athan (verified owner) –
A Pixar movie of a book: the plot is for the kids; the jokes are for the adults.
With that said, the jokes are AWESOME, the little cartoons much better than the title suggests and the (ninth grade) math is explained so well I wish I had this book in ninth grade. Perhaps these days it’s an eighth grade book, I don’t know. (My kids are still too young.)
Also, rather embarrassingly, I LEARNED STUFF FROM HERE. No, I did not learn math. I learned stuff I ought to have figured out for myself but was too focused on my grades to ponder. Like, why elephants have thick legs: for the same reason the sky is black! I’m serious, it’s the same reason and you can read it here…
Halfway through the book the author actually runs out of amazing things about the natural world and from there he takes you to the mathematics of Wall Street and the IRS, which I did not find as captivating, let us say. It all remains just as funny, though.
So this was a fun book to read. Probably an awesome gift for your friends’ kids. If the little ones don’t read it, the adults will at least get some good laughs out of it.
Amazon Customer (verified owner) –
Enjoying the book.
James Orlin (verified owner) –
If you liked “Math with Bad Drawings”, then you should buy this book. If you have taken calculus, this book will offer you a rich repertoire of stories, poems, cartoons, and witticisms that will delightfully enhance your understanding of calculus. If you have never taken calculus, this book will offer you a rich repertoire of stories, poems, cartoons and witticisms that will gently and delightfully offer you insights into calculus and how it helps us to understand the world in which we live. Ben Orlin is a wonderfully talented author. In addition, he is a wonderful son.
John Menefee (verified owner) –
Lovely wit, a thorough knowledge of the subject, and a sympathy for those in reader land that may not quite get all of it make the author a shining example of what a good teacher should be. And what is a non-fiction writer but a teacher? Thank you, Mr Orlin. May I sit in the back row of your classroom one day and never be tempted to throw spitballs!
MDauldschool (verified owner) –
I am not facile in math and have no desire to tackle difficult equations. But I do recognize that math is fundamental to the world as we conceive it. This book gave me insight to the underlying principles of mathematics and was both interesting and enjoyable.
C. Evans (verified owner) –
The author and book does a very good job of balancing the practical applications of derivatives and integrals with their inherent beauty. It’s not a book that someone can use as a textbook, although there is a helpful guide at the back to connect each chapter to what you might encounter in a traditional calculus curriculum. The book is probably best described as a good companion reference for students in the midst of taking calculus or maybe just afterward, the latter to have a broader perspective to be able to fully appreciate the material. It’s also a good reference for calculus instructors; I found myself wishing at several points that I had been exposed in my calculus classes to examples and insight similar to those conveyed in the book, particularly with respect to conceptualizing derivatives and the chain rule.
Dale E Alleshouse (verified owner) –
Change is the Only Constant is a thoroughly entertaining book. There aren’t many authors who could juxtapose humor, history, and mathematical theory into a coherent narrative; however, Ben Orlin does so artfully. While the book clearly states that it won’t “teach you calculus”(p. 17), it does provide the “whys” of calculus that are so often absent from traditional math pedagogy. Mr. Orlin showcases his masterful teaching skills by educating readers without their knowledge. Each analogy is deftly crafted to provide expert insight. The historical accounts and related stories also conspire to make the subject come alive. The final icing on the cake is the comical drawings. There isn’t anything about this book that I didn’t enjoy. In conclusion, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys witty whimsy regardless of their predilection for calculus.
Kathy/Jim W. (verified owner) –
Very clear explanations. Range of topics covered a bit thin for someone with accounting background. i.e. I already knew 50% or more. For general population probably great.
The Polymath (verified owner) –
Calculus is generally viewed as one of mathematics’ most difficult disciplines. I really enjoyed Ben Orlin’s new book. It takes a lot of skill to take a challenging subject and make it accessible to a general audience and fun at the same time. He cleverly compares various areas of life to the concepts of derivatives and integrals. Well done!
Marlow (verified owner) –
Definitely not a textbook and not advertised as one; but certainly a great companion to those studying mathematics, and delightfully reminiscence of classroom days of long ago. It’s actually a 3 in 1 book – elements of history, elements of calculus, and great jokes and puns. Just as math gets better the more math one does, this book gets better the further along one reads. At least one good laugh every few pages. Now I must find someone to share this with. Hm….
Tizzy (verified owner) –
Here’s the deal: I’m an engineer.
Here’s the other deal: I despise calculus and suck at it.
Here’s the reason: Colleges teach calculus in absurdly formal, mathematical ways, focusing on having students learn a bunch of formulas rather than on having them understand what any of it means anyway. On top of that, the reliance on the antiderivative as an integral method means students spend years trying to perfect this skill – even when as professionals most won’t use it at all, since we have calculators and software that use paradoxically more reliable numerical methods.
Here’s the detail about this book: It’s written in the same way college classes should be taught. It focuses on helping you understand what a derivative is (other than the calculus 101 definition of “the inclination of the tangent against the curve” that means absolutely nothing) and what an integral means. Then it gives you interesting, fun examples of it.
This book won’t really make you good at maths or formal calculus, since it teaches no formulas or mathematical methods. It will, however, allow you to understand just what it is you’re doing and why.
And if I had known what I was doing and why when I was a student, my career would’ve been much, much, much easier.
I can’t recommend this enough.
Grounded for Reading (verified owner) –
I am a high school student who read this for enrichment while taking Algebra 2. I think this book was a fantastic read. The drawings were humorous and added with the text that corresponded with them, subjects or topics became understandable. The writing itself was smooth and engaging. I also appreciated the careful organization of the book. Not only was this an entertaining book, but the information itself was also interesting, and gave me something to think about after each segment. “Math With Bad Drawings” is perfect when you’re aligning it with highschool math.
Ian Simon (verified owner) –
The first few chapters had specific mathematical concepts. Subsequent chapters seemed to focus on more abstract and broader topics of mathematical applications in society. I was hoping for more interesting mathematical concepts, but it was still very interesting and an enjoyable read.
JM (verified owner) –
I wish chapters from this book accompanied text book readings in various courses while I was in school. Pragmatism and humor make the complex digestible… and entertaining!
elliesan77 (verified owner) –
I originally backed this book on Kickstarter and was pleasantly surprised when I received this hefty tome of games. The games are so much fun and remind me all the old paper games I used to play as a kid. My daughter loves playing them with me and doesn’t believe that any of them are actually math games. I have since bought 3 more copies to give as gifts.
LoRider (verified owner) –
This book is just fun – both the games and the writing! These games involve the deep level logical thinking that is at the heart of mathematics – it is not basic arithmetic games. Even if you don’t play a single game, the book is so witty, entertaining and insightful that it’s worth reading anyway. I found parts laugh out loud funny.
I bought this book the day before our family went on a trip, but I didn’t get to read it as much as intended because my twelve year old son confiscated it and read it cover-to-cover. This book turned out to be a perfect travel companion – my family played games like Quantum Go-Fish, Dandelions, Win-Lose-Banana, Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe and Sprouts in the car and at the airport. Even my eight year old son has requested to play these games again and has gotten our family playing Quantum Go Fish at dinner. Read the book because it’s interesting, play the games because they’re fun, and find yourself smarter in the end – the way all good learning happen.
Karen (verified owner) –
While the title (which includes “math”) made scare some away, this book initiates the non-mathematician to sensible and easy to understand utility and pervasiveness of mathematical principles in our conception of the world around us…it presents the a,b,c’s of how the universal language of mathematics underlies most of what we “know” or at least believe to be true (beliefs can become fact or fiction simply by changing initial assumptions)— acceptance of such truths are another matter. In short—if you love math you’ll enjoy the simplicity with which the author presents it—if you”hate” math (or just have bad memories of head-banging trying to figure out what the point of a, b, and c is anyway), you’ll see that, when presented simple, it actually makes sense!
Mr. Stephen Holmes (verified owner) –
I teach middle school and high school mathematics. One of my students’ parents mentioned this book to me. It looked intriguing so I got a copy. Spoiler alert: It has been revolutionary in my math teaching.
The games are very easily explained, even to squirrely seventh-graders, who can start playing almost right away but soon discover what appears to be a simple game actually has lots of twists and turns and strategies. I just finished playing one with a group of 30 kids (the combination game “Neighbors”) and it was a huge success. We played three games and the kids’ strategies completely changed by the end of the third game. You could watch their minds take in information, think it over, and come up with new plans. At the end, a student said, “That was so much fun! We should do that every Friday!”
I agree with the author that current math curriculum is dreadfully boring. This book of games brings the beauty and joy of math back into the classroom. I especially love how he relates the games to real-world situations which require similar thought processes.
I feel it should be part of everyone’s math curriculum. Heck, it should be part of every curriculum; it covers ideas in science, statistics, government, physics, and more! If you are a teacher, you won’t be disappointed.
TW (verified owner) –
My middle-school-aged son enjoys math and science, and he has loved the games in this book. I’ve played several with him and the ones I tried out were easy to learn, but challenging to master. I also wanted to point out that the book is a very nice hardcover and quite a bit larger than I expected.
Stephanie Koerner (verified owner) –
A wonderful blend of humor, history and of course mathematics. This book provides the “why” that many students miss out on in typical math classes. It lends a sense of wonder, that working through formulas and algorithms cannot do easily on their own. It provides the fuel to start one’s journey into calculus.
Blue Moon (verified owner) –
This is a great collection of games, like an encyclopedia of paper and pencil games. Great resource to have for anyone with kids. Games like this make kids smarter. The author includes interesting historical notes and fun variations of the popular games you might already know.
Martin S Zohn (verified owner) –
This book provides a delightful and entertaining intuitive explanation of many very fundamental ideas in Calculus that textbooks usually deal with inadequately. It fills gaps that may have puzzled people who knew enough calculus to build a bridge or pass their final exam, but who were puzzled and wanted a slightly better explanation of the “why” or “how.” It takes you the “final step” or the critical connection that often was not presented in other Calculus Books. For example, why (really) does that mechanical formula for a derivative or an integral work and make sense intuitively? You may know how to compute it mechanically, and you may have a decent understanding of its derivation, proof and application; but this takes you the rest of the way, often to an ‘aha’ moment. Even the ubiquitous normal curve gets a brief explanation that fleshes out the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of the seemingly obscure, complicated mathematical formula that generates it.
There is plenty of wise-cracking throughout the book — some of it very funny, some of it merely ‘ok’ or even a little distracting from the somewhat ‘world changing’ revelations and insights. But, this sets the tone of this narrative as being like a good humored explanation by your favorite uncle or aunt who is relaxing with a beverage on your porch on a humid summer afternoon, and answering your questions in an unhurried way — but a very insightful, deep, cogent and revealing way.
Edgar G. (verified owner) –
Very happy with this purchase. Can’t yet speak to the quality of the book’s content, but I can say the book seller is reputable.
MrsChris (verified owner) –
My 9 year-old and I really enjoy these math games! Even my 4 year-old can play some of them. The handy white boards, markers, and other tools make it an easy, portable learning game. I would recommend!
Dan Beaudry (verified owner) –
The book is an impressive combo of math and the ‘real world.’ I’ve never been particularly good at math, but still find it fascinating as the language of nature. This book speaks to me on that level. The writing is great, the humor is rich, and the ideas are very interesting.
Jolandri (verified owner) –
Bought as a gift for someone who loves math. He loves it! The writer uses readable language, but even someone with a PhD in math would learn from it!
Niche (verified owner) –
This was a pretty slow start for me. The humor didn’t really click, and I didn’t find if particularly engaging until probability and statistics came to the fore about a third in. It mostly argues that math isn’t some esoteric and impractical exercise, but instead a language of logic.
Ava Courtney Sylvester (verified owner) –
Don’t like math? Try reading a book about it.
No, seriously, you should, if it’s this book.
Ben Orlin acts as the ideal teacher, able to explain some of the hardest aspects of his field of study in a way that amateurs and decades-out-of-practice people can comprehend. Along the way, you’ll see how math can be used to understand science, politics, economics, and even history. Whatever your interests are, there’s a way math can apply to them, thereby sparking an interest in math itself.
Final thought: Some of the best jokes are in the endnotes, including a great bit poking fun at the people thirsty enough to read the endnotes. He sees me!
Amy (verified owner) –
Ben Orlin makes math fun and accessible with this collection of games, complete with his clever drawings! This is a great resource for bringing some fun new ideas to math class— excited to get my middle schoolers playing!
James Orlin (verified owner) –
I really like this book. It’s filled with pleasurable “aha moments” where something you know (or knew) in math suddenly becomes clear and interesting. This book will be enjoyed and valued by a wide range of readers with a wide range of math backgrounds. But I’ll single out a very specific group. If you are a parent and want to help your elementary school child with math homework, this book will be will be enormously helpful to you, while also being a pleasure to read. It will provide you with mathematical insights and connections that will make it much easier for you to understand precisely what your child is learning (or should be learning) math. The book will make doing math with your child much more rewarding and pleasurable experience. And even if you are not the parent of an elementary school child, you will find the book to be a joy to read. Ben is a great writer, and he is also a great son.
Hua (verified owner) –
Children like it ! Recommend.
Daniela Tirnovan (verified owner) –
Ben Orlin’s take on math is a must read for anyone
Daniela Tirnovan (verified owner) –
Best book out there for fun math games with an easily digestible background on it
George Reuter (verified owner) –
The insights from Ben are outstanding. He helped me understand what non-majors find so daunting about my beautiful discipline.
Ramiro Michelon (verified owner) –
O livro, como os anteriores, é maravilhoso. O autor consegue explicar de maneira didática o que são os componentes com os quais a Matemática opera. O único porém é que é destinado ao público dos Estados Unidos (só ver a parte das casas decimais, não é explicado a diferença entre ponto, e vírgula, no Brasil).
Fei (verified owner) –
recommended by a friend, who is a math protidge. It is good for kids to train their math thinking.
HELSOL (verified owner) –
Looks great, but book came in a box with heavy things and the edges were a little more roughed up than I’d like with it being a gift.
It was a bday gift for my middle and high school math teacher husband, so it’ll definitely get roughed up on its own, but he seems excited go through it with students.
fogger (verified owner) –
Gave this book to grandson as a gift. This was his first pick as a present. Check it out – it might appeal to someone on your gift list!