Hugh Barker – författare

A readily understandable exploration of how figures are badly reported or deliberately misrepresented everywhere from political arguments and briefings to business presentations and shopping offers.Praise for Hugh Barker's Million Dollar Maths:'Great fun. A clear, original and highly readable account of the curious relationship between mathematics and money.' Professor Ian Stewart - author of Significant Figures'A lively crash course in the mathematics of gambling, investing, and managing. Hugh Barker makes deep ideas fun and profitable.' William Poundstone - author of How to Predict the Unpredictable Politicians, economists, scientists, journalists . . . all of them have been known to bend the truth and to twist the facts from time to time. But surely the numbers and statistics they rely on are cold, hard objective facts that tell the real story? Of course the truth is much murkier than that. Figures can be misinterpreted, misunderstood, misconstrued and misused in hundreds of different ways. This book takes a look at the many ways that statistical information can be badly reported or deliberately misused in all walks of life, from political arguments, to business presentations, to more local concerns such as shopping offers and utility bills. A polemical guide to how numbers are used to mislead, which is intended to help the reader through the minefield of dubious stats and lying numbers.

Million Dollar Maths is an invaluable guide to the straightforward and outlandish mathematical strategies that can make you rich. ____________How can you turn $1000 into $1 million? What is the best way to beat the lottery odds? When is the best time to take out a loan?How did one group of gamblers bet on hole-in-ones to win £500,000? How can maths help you set up a successful tech start-up? What about proving the Goldbach Conjecture for $1 million?Learn the techniques for growing your everyday finances, as well as the common mistakes to avoid. Discover the skills, both fair and foul, that offer an additional edge when investing and gambling. And discover why we often misunderstand probability and statistics - with troubling financial costs. From making the most of special offers to utilising the power of exponential growth in your investments; from the art of card counting, to inventing the next Google, Million Dollar Maths is the quintessential primer to the myriad ways maths and finance intersect.

From the author of Million Dollar Maths comes a fascinating and engaging look at the mathematics that lies behind our modern world. How does Google know what you want to type? How did humans first reach the moon? Could we ever have a supercomputer the size of a pinhead?In this thrilling numerical journey, Hugh Barker explores how mathematics has helped to build the technology of today, and the fascinating ways it is shaping the future. From green energy to 3-D printing and from quantum cryptography to machine learning, Quantum Leaps reveals the hidden mathematics in modern technology.Beautifully written and full of ingenious examples, this book will make you realise how the modern world would be impossible without our formidable mathematical armoury.

From the author of Million Dollar Maths comes a fascinating and engaging look at how mathematics is shaping our modern world, and what the future might hold.How do AI and robots get smarter?What are the limits of space travel?Could we ever have a supercomputer the size of a pinhead?In this thrilling numerical journey, Hugh Barker explores how mathematics has helped to build the technology of today, and the fascinating ways it is shaping our future. From green energy to 3D printing and from quantum cryptography to machine learning, Quantum Leaps reveals where we're heading, and how it would be impossible to get there without our formidable mathematical armoury.

Hedge enthusiast Hugh Barker journeyed across Britain to explore its remarkable variety of gardens and hedgerows. He discovered how hedges are among our most ancient monuments, met hedge laying champions and topiary fanatics, and saw the lengths to which some people will go just to annoy the neighbours. Hugh explains how the garden hedge became associated with paradise, why the British army planted a barrier hedge hundreds of miles long in India, and how the notorious enclosures during the Industrial Revolution turned the country upside-down. Informative, revealing and anecdotal, it's a sweeping history of Britain as you've never seen it before.