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Millions, Billions, Zillions

Defending Yourself in a World of Too Many Numbers
  • Brian W. Kernighan and Brian W. Kernighan
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2018
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About this book

An essential guide to recognizing bogus numbers and misleading data

Numbers are often intimidating, confusing, and even deliberately deceptive—especially when they are really big. The media loves to report on millions, billions, and trillions, but frequently makes basic mistakes or presents such numbers in misleading ways. And misunderstanding numbers can have serious consequences, since they can deceive us in many of our most important decisions, including how to vote, what to buy, and whether to make a financial investment. In this short, accessible, enlightening, and entertaining book, leading computer scientist Brian Kernighan teaches anyone—even diehard math-phobes—how to demystify the numbers that assault us every day.

With examples drawn from a rich variety of sources, including journalism, advertising, and politics, Kernighan demonstrates how numbers can mislead and misrepresent. In chapters covering big numbers, units, dimensions, and more, he lays bare everything from deceptive graphs to speciously precise numbers. And he shows how anyone—using a few basic ideas and lots of shortcuts—can easily learn to recognize common mistakes, determine whether numbers are credible, and make their own sensible estimates when needed.

Giving you the simple tools you need to avoid being fooled by dubious numbers, Millions, Billions, Zillions is an essential survival guide for a world drowning in big—and often bad—data.

Author / Editor information

Brian W. Kernighan is professor of computer science at Princeton University. His many books include Understanding the Digital World: What You Need to Know about Computers, the Internet, Privacy, and Security (Princeton). He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Reviews

"This is a must-read for anyone looking to cure their “number numbness”"---Tibi Puiu, ZME Science --- "I can wholeheartedly recommend reading this book, because of the infectious way the author describes his interaction with numbers."---J. Herret, International Mathematical News --- "Numbers, graphs and statistics can often be misleading and misrepresented. In Millions, Billions, Zillions: Defending Yourself in a World of Too Many Numbers, Kernighan provides the reader with an entertaining and useful guide to avoid becoming a victim of number abuse."---Ben Rothke, RSA Conference --- "Having a healthy skepticism toward numbers and giving readers the tools to think about math more logically is the purpose of this easily read, slight book. Brian W. Kernighan adroitly distills complex issues. His tone is more that of a mellow friend breaking down a concept that flummoxes you rather than an Ivy League professor expounding on the elegance of numbers."---Jacqueline Cutler, NJ.com

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    vii
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  • Publicly Available

    Preface

    xi
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    Chapter 1: Getting Started

    1
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    Chapter 2: Millions, Billions, Zillions

    9
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    Chapter 3: Big Numbers

    19
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    Chapter 4: Mega, Giga, Tera, and Beyond

    31
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    Chapter 5: Units

    41
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    Chapter 6: Dimensionality

    49
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    Chapter 7: Milestones

    59
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    Chapter 8: Specious Precision

    69
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    Chapter 9: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

    85
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    Chapter 10: Graphical Trickery

    95
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    Chapter 11: Bias

    109
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    Chapter 12: Arithmetic

    119
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    Chapter 13: Estimation

    137
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    Chapter 14: Self Defense

    151
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    Further Reading

    157
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    Figure Credits

    159

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 14, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780691190136
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691190136
eBook ISBN: 9780691190136
Keywords for this book
Estimation; Year; Computation; The New York Times; Percentage; Arithmetic; Scientific notation; Percentage point; Little's law; The Wisdom of Crowds; Innumeracy (book); Darrell Huff; How to Lie with Statistics; Breast cancer; Rule of 72; Nobel Prize; Newsweek; Newspaper; Mortality rate; Power of 10; Warren Buffett; Approximation; My Local; Result; Ranking (information retrieval); Your Computer (British magazine); Petabyte; Pound sterling; Dot-com bubble; Error; Quadrillion; Tax; Fermi problem; Economics; Inflation; John Maynard Keynes; Hulu; The World's Billionaires; Headline; The Beauty Myth; Consumer Reports; Body surface area; Centenarian; Half Gone; Blogger (service); Square yard; American Medical Association; Zettabyte; Kilogram; Order of magnitude; Gigabyte; Identity theft; Exponential growth; Baby boomers; Unemployment; Barrel (unit); Corporate tax; Back-of-the-envelope calculation; Round number; Dilbert; Naomi Wolf; Quantity; Associated Press; Sampling bias; Tax cut; U.S. News & World Report; Calculation; Millionth; AARP; With high probability
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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