Unequal

A NEW SCIENTIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Clear, clever and friendly...even at her most whimsical, she is rigorous and insightful' ALEX BELLOS 'Eugenia Cheng has humour, grace and a natural gift' DANIEL LEVITIN 'Playful and deeply serious ... shows how exploring equality in maths may help the real world' NEW SCIENTIST When we see an equals sign, we usually see something clear cut: problem on one side, solution on the other. We might need to shuffle some things around - balance the equation - to get there, but it's all pretty clear cut...isn't it? As it turns out, between those parallel lines lies something far more exciting than questions and answers. An equals sign is an invitation to a mathematical playground of choice and abstraction. By opening your mind to different mathematical choices and perspectives, you can unlock far greater insight than you could have dreamed. Eugenia Cheng explores the rich and rewarding interplay between sameness and difference, and offers us a new way to see the world based on the choices and interpretations we make. A glorious celebration of mathematics, Unequal will change the way you think - in maths, and in life.

A NEW SCIENTIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Clear, clever and friendly...even at her most whimsical, she is rigorous and insightful' ALEX BELLOS 'Eugenia Cheng has humour, grace and a natural gift' DANIEL LEVITIN 'Playful and deeply serious ... shows how exploring equality in maths may help the real world' NEW SCIENTIST When we see an equals sign, we usually see something clear cut: problem on one side, solution on the other. We might need to shuffle some things around - balance the equation - to get there, but it's all pretty clear cut...isn't it? As it turns out, between those parallel lines lies something far more exciting than questions and answers. An equals sign is an invitation to a mathematical playground of choice and abstraction. By opening your mind to different mathematical choices and perspectives, you can unlock far greater insight than you could have dreamed. Eugenia Cheng explores the rich and rewarding interplay between sameness and difference, and offers us a new way to see the world based on the choices and interpretations we make. A glorious celebration of mathematics, Unequal will change the way you think - in maths, and in life.

An exciting "new perspective on equality and difference" (Stephon Alexander) that shows why the familiar equal sign isn't just a marker of sameness but a gateway into math's--and humanity's--most profound questions "Eugenia Cheng has opened up my mind to the wondrous world of pure mathematics in a way that I never thought was possible."―Willow Smith, singer and actress Math is famous for its equations: 1 + 1 = 2, a 2 + b 2 = c 2 , or y = mx + b . Much of the time it can seem like that's all mathematics is: following steps to show that what's on one side of an equation is the same as what's on the other. In Unequal , Eugenia Cheng shows that's just part of the story, and the boring part to boot. Mathematics isn't only about showing how numbers and symbols are the same. It isn't even just about numbers and symbols at all, but a world of shapes, symmetries, logical ideas, and more. And in that world, the boundary between things being equal and unequal is a gray area, or perhaps a rainbow of beautiful, vibrant, subtly nuanced color. As Unequal shows, once you go over that rainbow, almost everything can be considered equal and unequal at the same time, whether it's shapes (seen from the right perspective, a circle is the same as an ellipse), words (synonyms), or people--even numbers! It all depends on what features we care about. And it's up to us what we do about it. That's because mathematics isn't a series of rules, facts, or answers. It's an invitation to a more powerful way of thinking.

An exciting "new perspective on equality and difference" (Stephon Alexander) that shows why the familiar equal sign isn't just a marker of sameness but a gateway into math's--and humanity's--most profound questions "Eugenia Cheng has opened up my mind to the wondrous world of pure mathematics in a way that I never thought was possible."―Willow Smith, singer and actress Math is famous for its equations: 1 + 1 = 2, a 2 + b 2 = c 2 , or y = mx + b . Much of the time it can seem like that's all mathematics is: following steps to show that what's on one side of an equation is the same as what's on the other. In Unequal , Eugenia Cheng shows that's just part of the story, and the boring part to boot. Mathematics isn't only about showing how numbers and symbols are the same. It isn't even just about numbers and symbols at all, but a world of shapes, symmetries, logical ideas, and more. And in that world, the boundary between things being equal and unequal is a gray area, or perhaps a rainbow of beautiful, vibrant, subtly nuanced color. As Unequal shows, once you go over that rainbow, almost everything can be considered equal and unequal at the same time, whether it's shapes (seen from the right perspective, a circle is the same as an ellipse), words (synonyms), or people--even numbers! It all depends on what features we care about. And it's up to us what we do about it. That's because mathematics isn't a series of rules, facts, or answers. It's an invitation to a more powerful way of thinking.