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Review - Do You Feel Lucky? - Kjartan Poskitt

Very broadly there's two types of science or maths. There's the sort that makes sense, and is interesting but not necessarily surprising, and there's the sort that takes you by surprise and makes you go wow! Typical, there's more of the "wow" factor in physics and maths than some of the other sciences - and this makes for a two-edged sword. Presented right, it's a great opportunity, but it's easy to make it totally incomprehensible.

Kjartan Poskitt does a great job in explaining the most everyday bit of maths that is at the same time desperately counter-intuitive - probability. If a coin has been tossed nine times in a row and each time it came up heads, most people will believe the next time it's more than likely to come up tails. Nope it's still 50:50, something Poskitt explains with glee.

Compared with some of the other similar Scholastic books (Horrible Science etc.), there is more of a flow to this book - it reads better as a book and less like a series of little articles. It still lacks a bit of the personal edge - it would have been nice to have found a bit more about Pascal and friends - but this made it better popular science, though it pushes up the age range a little in our opinion.

This is some of the most important maths there is for everyday life, yet surprisingly few people understand it - Poskitt's book should be required reading as it does a brilliant job. To be honest, this is a book many adults could do to read too - it's that good. It doesn't make as much use of the cartoons as some of the other books in the format, but they are still very effective.

If you find the whole subject interesting, check out our short article Ferraris and Goats, which puts across one of the examples in the book in a more dramatic and puzzling way.

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!

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