"A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the book, "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper" written by John Allen Paulos. The paper examines how Paulos expands his view of number and mathematics to show how much information numbers can convey and how mathematics can illuminate virtually any subject if properly applied. Paulos discusses these issues by dividing his analysis into categories, beginning with politics and the economy and then continuing through business issues, lifestyle news, science and medicine, and finally, a section on stories that may seem very far from mathematics on food, books, sports, and obituaries. The paper explains that the analysis by Paulos is practical in orientation, for he does not speak in generalities, but rather discusses specific stories and illustrates what mathematics can reveal about them.

From the Paper:

"While mathematics may be the focus, Paulos also shows how logic is often suspended by readers and how they may accept conventional wisdom and so judge what they read uncritically, when in fact they would be more correct to raise questions and seek deeper answers. One aspect of our misunderstanding comes from the way newspaper writers misuse numbers, but readers also misuse numbers. Paulos cite the anchoring effect under which when given an erroneous number and asked to estimate the correct number, individuals moved in the right direction but not by very much. They would become anchored to the original number and be reluctant to move too far form it (17-18). Paulos finds ways in which seemingly simple facts may not be facts at all, such as the circulation numbers of newspapers, given as if the number indicate a daily truth."

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