Overview

What is math? And how exactly does it work? In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng provides and accessible introduction to the logic of mathematics--sprinkled throughout with recipes for everything from crispy duck to cornbread--that illustrates to the general listener the beauty of math. Rather than dwell on the math of our high school classes, with formulas to memorize an confusing symbols to decipher, Cheng takes us into a world of abstract mathematics, showing us how math can be so much more than we ever thought possible. Cheng is an expert on category theory, a cutting-edge subject that is all about figuring out how math works, a kind of mathematics of mathematics. In How to Bake Pi, Cheng starts with the basic question What is math? to explain concepts like abstraction, generalization, and idealization. By going back to the logical foundation of the math we all know (and may or may not love), she shows that math is actually designed to make difficult things easier. From there, she introduces us to category theory, explaining how it works to organize and simplify the whole discipline of mathematics, bridging the gaps between different mathematical concepts and shedding light on some of math's most puzzling mysteries. Though the ideas are far from simple, Cheng outlines everything in crystal-clear terms, drawing on a wide range of analogies and examples to show that doing math uses the same skills we rely on when we read a map, cook a new dish, or complete a jigsaw puzzle. The result is a book that combines some of the most satisfying features of popular math books--the thrill of truly understanding things that may or may not have been confounding in high school, while still look long and hard into unexplored territory. Through lively writing and easy-to-follow explanations, How to Bake Pi will take even the most hardened math-phobe on a journey to the cutting edge mathematical research.

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9781665153584

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Reviews

[A] slyly illuminating dispatch on the deep meaning of mathematics...She compels us to see numbers and symbols as vivid characters in an ongoing drama. -- Natalie Angier, Pulitzer prize-winning science columnist An original book using recipes to explain sophisticated math concepts to students and even the math-phobic...[Cheng] is a gifted teacher...A sharp, witty book to press on students and even the teachers of math teachers. -- Kirkus Reviews Cheng is exceptional at translating the abstract concepts of mathematics into ordinary language...and makes her love for mathematics contagious. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Cheng's charming new book embeds math in a casing of wry, homespun metaphors...Cheng is at home with math...by the end of How to Bake Pi, you might be, too. -- Jordan Ellenberg, professor of mathematics, University of Wisconsin, and author of How Not to Be Wrong Her tone is clear, clever, and friendly. Even at her most whimsical she is rigorous and insightful. Potentially confusing ideas are expressed with a matter-of-fact simplicity...How to Bake Pi is a welcome addition to the popular-math shelf. -- New York Times Book Review Invoking plenty of examples from cooking and baking, as well as other everyday-life situations such as calculating a taxi fare, searching for love through online dating services and training for a marathon, [Cheng] explains abstract mathematical ideas--including topology and logic--in understandable ways....[A] lively, accessible book. -- Scientific American Tavia Gilbert narrates with a liveliness and lightness that one might not expect in a book about the world of mathematics...Gilbert's fluid voice conveys the themes of beauty and power in both the concrete and abstract aspects of math...Gilbert's lyrical narration, together with her deliberate speed as she delivers the formulas, brings clarity and a down-to-earth approach to this often intimidating subject matter. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile What a charming and original book! The central analogy--math is like cooking--turns out to be surprisingly apt and often funny. -- Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics, Cornell University, and author of The Joy of x With this delightfully surprising book, Eugenia Cheng reveals the hidden beauty of mathematics with passion and simplicity. After reading How to Bake Pi, you won't look at math (nor porridge!) in the same way ever again. -- Roberto Trotta, author of The Edge of the Sky

"""[A] slyly illuminating dispatch on the deep meaning of mathematics...She compels us to see numbers and symbols as vivid characters in an ongoing drama."" -- ""Natalie Angier, Pulitzer prize-winning science columnist"" ""An original book using recipes to explain sophisticated math concepts to students and even the math-phobic...[Cheng] is a gifted teacher...A sharp, witty book to press on students and even the teachers of math teachers."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Cheng is exceptional at translating the abstract concepts of mathematics into ordinary language...and makes her love for mathematics contagious."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""Cheng's charming new book embeds math in a casing of wry, homespun metaphors...Cheng is at home with math...by the end of How to Bake Pi, you might be, too."" -- ""Jordan Ellenberg, professor of mathematics, University of Wisconsin, and author of How Not to Be Wrong"" ""Her tone is clear, clever, and friendly. Even at her most whimsical she is rigorous and insightful. Potentially confusing ideas are expressed with a matter-of-fact simplicity...How to Bake Pi is a welcome addition to the popular-math shelf."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""Invoking plenty of examples from cooking and baking, as well as other everyday-life situations such as calculating a taxi fare, searching for love through online dating services and training for a marathon, [Cheng] explains abstract mathematical ideas--including topology and logic--in understandable ways....[A] lively, accessible book."" -- ""Scientific American"" ""Tavia Gilbert narrates with a liveliness and lightness that one might not expect in a book about the world of mathematics...Gilbert's fluid voice conveys the themes of beauty and power in both the concrete and abstract aspects of math...Gilbert's lyrical narration, together with her deliberate speed as she delivers the formulas, brings clarity and a down-to-earth approach to this often intimidating subject matter. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""What a charming and original book! The central analogy--math is like cooking--turns out to be surprisingly apt and often funny."" -- ""Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics, Cornell University, and author of The Joy of x"" ""With this delightfully surprising book, Eugenia Cheng reveals the hidden beauty of mathematics with passion and simplicity. After reading How to Bake Pi, you won't look at math (nor porridge!) in the same way ever again."" -- ""Roberto Trotta, author of The Edge of the Sky"""

Author Information

Eugenia Cheng is tenured in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. She has previously been on the mathematics faculty at the University of Chicago and is the Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago. Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.

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