Proofiness: How You’re Being Fooled by the Numbers-Fast Shipping

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From the author of Zero, comes this “admirable salvoagainst quantitative bamboozlement by the media and the government”(The Boston Globe)

In Zero, Charles Seife presented readers with a thrillingaccount of the strangest number known to humankind. Now he showsreaders how the power of skewed metrics-or “proofiness”- is being usedto alter perception in both amusing and dangerous ways. Proofiness isbehind such bizarre stories as a mathematical formula for the perfectbutt and sprinters who can run faster than the speed of sound. Butproofiness also has a dark side: bogus mathematical formulas used toundermine our democracy-subverting our justice system, fixingelections, and swaying public opinion with lies. By doing the realmath, Seife elegantly and good-humoredly scrutinizes our growingobsession with metrics while exposing those who misuse them.