What’s the best diet for overall health and weight management? How can we change our finances to retire earlier? How can we maximize our chances of finding our soul mate?
In The Calculus of Happiness, Oscar Fernandez shows us that math yields powerful insights into health, wealth, and love. Using only high-school-level math (precalculus with a dash of calculus), Fernandez guides us through several of the surprising results, including an easy rule of thumb for choosing foods that lower our risk for developing diabetes (and that help us lose weight too), simple 鈥渁ll-weather鈥� investment portfolios with great returns, and math-backed strategies for achieving financial independence and searching for our soul mate. Moreover, the important formulas are linked to a dozen free online interactive calculators on the book鈥檚 website, allowing one to personalize the equations.
Fernandez uses everyday experiences鈥攕uch as visiting a coffee shop鈥攖o provide context for his mathematical insights, making the math discussed more accessible, real-world, and relevant to our daily lives. Every chapter ends with a summary of essential lessons and takeaways, and for advanced math fans, Fernandez includes the mathematical derivations in the appendices.
A nutrition, personal finance, and relationship how-to guide all in one, The Calculus of Happiness invites you to discover how empowering mathematics can be.
"Surveys a wide variety of ways that mathematics can be used to improve decision making and general well-being. . . . [Fernandez] believes that even a smidgeon of algebra can encapsulate a lot of wisdom."鈥擳IME.com
"There are plenty of books about managing your wealth, but The Calculus of Happiness: How a Mathematical Approach to Life Adds Up to Health, Wealth, and Love, by Oscar Fernandez of 快色直播, sounds intriguing."鈥擬atthew Partridge, Money Week
"[E]ngaging. . . . Readers are sure to get a sense of how content from algebra and precalculus can help inform us about important decisions that are almost universally relevant."鈥擩ason M. Graham, MAA Reviews
"Brilliant. . . . Where Fernandez's book scores highly is that it goes beyond being a typical self-help manual for the numerate, by presenting example after example of how mathematical topics such as probability, game theory and exponential functions really do make sense of a world that can sometimes seem so subjective. It鈥檚 also an easy-going analysis of those areas in life that get brushed under the carpet, to be attended to another day. Once you realise it all boils down to maths, you will wake up happier, wealthier and healthier tomorrow morning, and we have Oscar E. Fernandez to thank for that."鈥擭ick Smith, Engineering & Technology
"The Calculus of Happiness . . . demonstrate[s] how mathematics can yield powerful insights into everyday life. . . . Someone with a robust desire to make serious changes in their life, or an interest in maths, will find much to consume in a book that teaches you how best to lose weight, how to build a sensible investment portfolio and even how to find the love of your life."鈥擧elen Thomson, New Scientist
"Fernandez generates such enthusiasm [for studying math] by considering topics that people do want to learn more about鈥攆ood, money, other people鈥攁nd skillfully weaving solid mathematical concepts within these topics. . . . His strategy is designed to foster love, rather than fear, of mathematics. It is an elegant approach."鈥擲andra L. Arlinghaus, Mathematical Reviews
"I thinkThe Calculus of Happiness is really more of a maths book than a sort-out-your-life book but there is much that will make you think about your own health, wealth and love-life and, possibly, make some changes."鈥擜nne Haworth, Mathematical Gazette
"This book consists of a range of entertaining topics that show the surprising real significance of mathematics in three important aspects of everyday life, which the reader of any mathematical ability can relate to."鈥擣rancis McGonigal CMath MIMA, Institute of Mathematics
"With an informal, engaging tone and sound applications, The Calculus of Happiness facilitates financial literacy. This is the first time I've encountered a book aimed at general readers that addresses the topic of financial mathematics. It is a valuable work that will serve as a lifelong resource."鈥擩ohn A. Adam, author of A Mathematical Nature Walk
"I absolutely love this book. The mathematics described is beautiful and accessible and, most important of all, truly meaningful and relevant."鈥擩ames Tanton, author of Without Words: Mathematical Puzzles to Confound and Delight
"With its appealing informal style, choice of topics inspired by everyday life, and links to the relevant mathematical concepts and methods, this book shows how mathematics can improve one's quality of life. From healthy eating to managing the monthly budget, readers will look at their daily activities from an angle they may have never thought of."鈥擬ax Alekseyev, The George Washington University
