Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension Synopsis
Stand-up mathematician and star of Festival of the Spoken Nerd, Matt Parker presents Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension - a riotous journey through the possibilities of numbers, with audience participation: cut pizzas in new and fairer ways; fit a 2p coin through an impossibly small hole; make a perfect regular pentagon by knotting a piece of paper; tie your shoes faster than ever before, saving literally seconds of your life; use those extra seconds to contemplate the diminishing returns of an exclamation-point at the end of every bullet-point; and, make a working computer out of dominoes. Maths is a game. This book can be cut, drawn in, folded into shapes and will even take you to the fourth dimension. So join stand-up mathematician Matt Parker on a journey through narcissistic numbers, optimal dating algorithms, at least two different kinds of infinity and more. Matt Parker is a stand-up comedian and mathematician. He writes about maths for the Guardian, has a maths column in the Telegraph, is a regular panellist on Radio 4's The Infinite Monkey Cage, and has performed his maths stand-up routines in front of audiences of thousands.
'Matt Parker is some sort of unholy fusion of a prankster, wizard and brilliant nerd - clever, funny and ever so slightly naughty'
- Adam Rutherford, author of CREATION
'Shows off maths at its most playful and multifarious, ranging from classics like knot theory and ruler-and-compass constructions to more whimsical topics like the topology of beer logos and error-correcting scarves'
- Jordan Ellenberg, author of HOW NOT TO BE WRONG
Author
About Matt Parker
Matt Parker, known as the Stand-up Mathematician, can be seen talking about maths on the BBC, in the Guardian and on stages across the UK, at science fairs, festivals and in theatres. Originally a maths teacher from Australia, Matt now lives in Guildford in a house full of almost every retro video-game console ever made. Nothing can ever stand between Matt and computers: he's fluent in binary and could write your name in a sequence of 0s and 1s in seconds. In 2012 he and the Think Maths team made a fully functioning computer out of domino circuits: it took 10,000 dominoes, 12 people and 6 hours. When he's not working as the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, doing stand-up or signing fans' calculators at the end of a show, Matt spends his time converting photographs into Excel spreadsheets. His favourite number is currently 2025.
We use cookies to give you the best online experience. Please let us know if you agree to all of these cookies. To learn more view privacy and cookies policy.
