It's a Numberful World: How Math Is Hiding Everywhere

A 2021 Mathical Honor Book that explores how mathematics underlies everyday phenomena. Eddie Woo, an award-winning math teacher and YouTuber with nearly two million subscribers, demonstrates that questions like "Why aren't left-handers extinct?" and "What makes a rainbow round?" are fundamentally mathematical because they involve patterns. Mathematics, at its core, is the study of patterns. The book contains twenty-six chapters examining hidden mathematical concepts found throughout the world—from sine waves in music to the golden ratio, from blood vessel branching to sunflower growth. Woo shows how mathematics encrypts email, influences sensory experience, and sustains human life. Topics range from the patterns in lightning and savings accounts to the mathematics of a pancreas and morning tea. Steven Strogatz, author of Infinite Powers, describes Woo as "one of the best math teachers on the planet." The Mathematical Association of America notes the book introduces mathematical vocabulary in an approachable way. Originally published in Australia as Woo's Wonderful World of Maths.