Description
Book SynopsisUncovers the surprising ways math shapes our livesfrom whom we date to what we learn. How do dating sites match compatible partners? What do cell phones and sea coasts have in common? And why do computer scientists keep ant colonies? Jeff Suzuki answers these questions and more in Patently Mathematical, which explores the mathematics behind some of the key inventions that have changed our world. In recent years, patents based on mathematics have been issued by the thousandsfrom search engines and image recognition technology to educational software and LEGO designs. Suzuki delves into the details of cutting-edge devices, programs, and products to show how even the simplest mathematical principles can be turned into patentable ideas worth billions of dollars. Readers will discover whether secure credit cards are really secure how improved data compression made streaming video services like Netflix a hit the mathematics behind self-correcting golf balls why Google is such an effecti
Trade ReviewPatently Mathematical by Jeff Suzuki is a chronicle of the various patents based on mathematical algorithm applications. Each of his twelve chapters itemizes a specific family of patents along with pertinent anecdotes and suitable-for-the-general-reader examples illustrating how the algorithms work . . . Suzuki's book is a kaleidoscopic guided tour of the patented mathematical innovations that by and large now distinctly characterize the twenty-first century with respect to past eras.
—Andrew James Simoson,
MathSciNetTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction. My Billion-Dollar Blunder
Chapter 1: The Informational Hokey Pokey
Chapter 2: The Trillion-Dollar Equation
Chapter 3: A Picture Is a Thousand Words
Chapter 4: If You Like Piña Coladas
Chapter 5: The Education Revolution
Chapter 6: Forget Your Password? Forget Your Password!
Chapter 7: The Company We Keep
Chapter 8: The Best of All Possible Worlds
Chapter 9: The Complete Saga
Chapter 10: Complexity from Simplicity
Chapter 11: RSA . . .
Chapter 12: . . . Is Passé
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
