Cover of The Joy of X

The Joy of X

A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity

by Steven H. Strogatz · first published 2012

24mentions
15recommended by
20HN commenters
2012–2026first – last mentioned

75% recommend25% neutral

Why HN recommends it

An easy-to-follow tour of many areas of mathematics, full of stories, written by an excellent writer. Suits curious general readers and younger students wanting a broad sampler of math.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Mathematics

Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, insight, and brilliant illustrations. Whether he is illuminating how often you should flip your mattress to get the maximum lifespan from it, explaining just how Google searches the internet, or determining how many people you should date before settling down, Strogatz shows how math connects to every as

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View on Open LibraryISBN 0544105850

Mentions per year

40 2007: 0 mentions2008: 0 mentions2009: 0 mentions2010: 0 mentions2011: 0 mentions2012: 1 mention2013: 2 mentions2014: 1 mention2015: 2 mentions2016: 2 mentions2017: 0 mentions2018: 0 mentions2019: 2 mentions2020: 3 mentions2021: 0 mentions2022: 2 mentions2023: 4 mentions2024: 1 mention2025: 0 mentions2026: 2 mentions200720172026

What Hacker News says

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