Short Cut: Maths - Katie Steckles (Ed.) ****

As a reader, I'm generally something of a sceptic on the subject of highly illustrated books that cover a topic in a series of two page spreads, but I surprised myself by enjoying Short Cut: Maths. It's described online as a paperback, but it's actually a quite handsome hardback.

The book is divided into eight sections (numbers, structures, logic, geometry and shape, functions, probability and statistics, modelling and games) each of which contains six or seven spreads in the form of answers to questions. These range from the straightforward 'How high can you count on your fingers?' or 'Why can't you un-square a number?' to the intriguing 'Can a baby manage a crocodile?' and 'How many hairs are there on a bear?'

As is often the case with this style of book, there are several contributors whose names are quite hard to find - as well as consulting editor Katie Steckles, we have Sam Hartburn, Alison Kiddle, and Peter Rowlett (plus illustrator Robert Fiszer). The mini-articles are approachable and easy reading. They often take the starting point of a question and expand it to cover a wider issue. So, for example, the 'How many hairs' question is used to introduce the concept of Fermi problems - those where an exact solution is difficult, but it's relatively easy to take a short cut to an approximation. This is then used to illustrate the way that mathematical modelling works and how models are iteratively improved.

My main gripe with the book is the graphic style, which is a bit in-your-face. Each section has an introduction in which some key words are in CAPITALS for reasons that aren't entirely obvious, but totally break the flow. The introduction is then followed by a flowchart-like map of the section, which I didn't find particularly useful. And the page colours, primarily darkish blue and a vivid orange, had me reaching for the sunglasses. But I coped.

Overall, covers an interesting range of mathematical topics in an entertaining fashion. There just aren't enough popular maths titles out there, and this was a good addition to what's on offer.

Hardback:

Kindle:
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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free hereShort

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