From the writer of ‘The Music of the Primes’ and ‘Finding Moonshine’ comes a brief, lively publication on five mathematical problems that just refuse be solved – and on what many everyday complications can be solved by maths.

Every time we download a song from Itunes, take a flight over the Atlantic or talk on our mobile phones, we are counting on great mathematical inventions. Maths may fail to offer answers to different of its own problems, nonetheless it can offer answers to problems that don’t about THE QUANTITY Mysteries: A Mathematical Odyssey through EVERYDAY ROUTINE seem to be its – how excellent numbers are the crucial to Actual Madrid’s achievement, to secrets on the Internet and to the success of bugs in the forests of North America.

In ‘The Number Mysteries’, Marcus du Sautoy explains how exactly to artificial a Jackson Pollock; how exactly to calculate whether or not really the universe has a hole in the center of it; how to make the world’s roundest soccer. He shows us how to find styles in four dimensions – and exactly how maths makes you a better gambler. He tells us about the pursuit to predict the near future – through the flight of asteroids for an impending surprise, from bending a ball like Beckham to predicting population growth.

It’s a publication to dip in to; a reserve to challenge and puzzle – and a book that provides us answers.