Take a photo of a barcode or cover
aeroles 's review for:
The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets
by Simon Singh
“Blows the lid off a decades-long conspiracy to secretly educate cartoon viewers”
— David Cohen
We had have Dragonball Z, Voltes V, etc but for Americans it was and still is The Simpsons. I'm aware that I am generalizing but even if many Americans never watch The Simpsons, it is indisputable that it has been a part of their cultural identity.
For my part, I never watched The Simpsons before I had this book. If you are a Filipino in the Philippines it is quite unusual to even know it exists. (Politicians seemed to be more popular in this country.) But I really have a big interest in this show. I know how Homer looks like and that all characters are yellow. I also know that it is an animated comedy show. But that there are mathematical secrets embedded in it is new to me. David Cohen, who has a degree in Physics and Computer Science and is a writer of The Simpsons, is quite right that Simon Singh “blows the lid off a decades-long conspiracy”.
In “The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets”, Simon Singh gives us a brief account on how this longest animated show develops. Simon, who has a PhD in particle physics (ahem), digs into the characters of its creators illustrating how the humor is mathematically influenced. From that he unlocks the major mathematical secrets hidden in the show carefully explaining the concepts like a hybrid mathematician and fabulist.
It is natural of course that this book is full of mathematics. You encounter words like narcissistic numbers, perfect numbers, the π, the e, and more and maybe (just maybe) you already feel intimidated that you choose to put your hands aways from this book. But I can assure you that you can go along and enjoy this wonderful book even without fully understanding each mathematical concepts.
If you love The Simpsons, I think you will appreciate the other side of its beauty that is not easily exposed (assuming that you don't know it before you read this book). This book is a cheer to The Simpsons' ingenuity— how it secretly educate cartoon viewers.
D'oh!
— David Cohen
We had have Dragonball Z, Voltes V, etc but for Americans it was and still is The Simpsons. I'm aware that I am generalizing but even if many Americans never watch The Simpsons, it is indisputable that it has been a part of their cultural identity.
For my part, I never watched The Simpsons before I had this book. If you are a Filipino in the Philippines it is quite unusual to even know it exists. (Politicians seemed to be more popular in this country.) But I really have a big interest in this show. I know how Homer looks like and that all characters are yellow. I also know that it is an animated comedy show. But that there are mathematical secrets embedded in it is new to me. David Cohen, who has a degree in Physics and Computer Science and is a writer of The Simpsons, is quite right that Simon Singh “blows the lid off a decades-long conspiracy”.
In “The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets”, Simon Singh gives us a brief account on how this longest animated show develops. Simon, who has a PhD in particle physics (ahem), digs into the characters of its creators illustrating how the humor is mathematically influenced. From that he unlocks the major mathematical secrets hidden in the show carefully explaining the concepts like a hybrid mathematician and fabulist.
It is natural of course that this book is full of mathematics. You encounter words like narcissistic numbers, perfect numbers, the π, the e, and more and maybe (just maybe) you already feel intimidated that you choose to put your hands aways from this book. But I can assure you that you can go along and enjoy this wonderful book even without fully understanding each mathematical concepts.
If you love The Simpsons, I think you will appreciate the other side of its beauty that is not easily exposed (assuming that you don't know it before you read this book). This book is a cheer to The Simpsons' ingenuity— how it secretly educate cartoon viewers.
D'oh!