Forget your classroom nightmares and discover how numbers can enhance and illuminate your world!How can math help you bet on horses or win in Vegas?What's the foolproof way to solve Sudoku? How can probabilityteach you to calculate your chances of survival inRussian roulette?In this irreverent and entertaining guide to mathematics,Lawrence Potter takes the fear out of everything from longdivision to percentages. Using fascinating puzzles and surprisingexamples, he shows us how math is connected withthe world we encounter every day, from how the VAT works towhy weather forecasts are wrong, from winning at Monopolyto improving your mental arithmetic. Along the way you'llalso discover who invented numbers, whether animals cancount, and what nuns have to do with multiplication.