secrets-of-mental-math-malestrom

xviii
Foreword
math nut. Immunizations against such afflictions are not available.
You have to recover all by yourself. Beware!
This is a fun book. You wouldn’t have it in your hands right
now if you didn’t have some interest either in improving your
math skills or in satisfying a curiosity about this fascinating subject.
As with all such instruction books, you may retain and use
only a certain percentage of the varied tricks and methods
described here, but that alone will make it worth the investment
of your time.
I know both the authors rather well. Art Benjamin is not only
one of those whiz kids we used to groan about in school but
also has been known to tread the boards at the Magic Castle in
Hollywood, performing demonstrations of his skill, and on one
occasion he traveled to Tokyo, Japan, to pit his math skills
against a lady savant on live television. Michael Shermer, with
his specialized knowledge of science, has an excellent overview
of practical applications of math as it is used in the real world.
If this is your first exposure to this kind of good math stuff, I
envy you. You’ll discover, as you come upon each delicious new
way to attack numbers, that you missed something in school.
Mathematics, particularly arithmetic, is a powerful and dependable
tool for day-to-day use that enables us to handle our complicated
lives with more assurance and accuracy. Let Art and
Michael show you how to round a few of the corners and cut
through some of the traffic. Remember these words of Dr. Samuel
Johnson, an eminently practical soul in all respects: “Arithemetical
inquiries give entertainment in solitude by the practice, and
reputation in public by the effect.”
Above all, enjoy the book. Let it entertain you, and have fun
with it. That, with the occasional good deed, a slice of pizza (no
anchovies!), and a selection of good friends is about all you can
ask of life. Well, almost all. Maybe a Ferrari . . .