L.A. Math: Romance, Crime, and Mathematics in the City of Angels [Hardcover]

Move over, Sherlock and Watsonthe detective duo to be reckoned with. In the entertaining short-story collectionL.A. Math, freelance investigator Freddy Carmichael and his sidekick, Pete Lennox, show how math smarts can crack even the most perplexing cases. Freddy meets colorful personalities throughout Los Angeles and encounters mysterious circumstances from embezzlement and robbery to murder. In each story, Freddy's deductive instinctsand Pete's trusty math skillssolve the crime.

Featuring such glamorous locales as Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu, and Santa Barbara, the fourteen short stories inL.A. Mathtake Freddy and Pete through various puzzles and challenges. In A Change of Scene, Freddy has to figure out who is selling corporate secrets to a competitorso he uses mathematical logic to uncover the culprit. In The Winning Streak, conditional probability turns the tables on an unscrupulous bookie. And in Message from a Corpse, the murderer of a wealthy widow is revealed through the rules of compound interest. Its everything you expect from the City of AngelsA-listers and wannabes, lovers and lawyers, heroes and villains. Readers will not only be entertained, but also gain practical mathematics knowledge, ranging from percentages and probability to set theory, statistics, and the mathematics of elections. For those who want to delve into mathematical subjects further, the book includes a supplementary section with more material.

Filled with intriguing stories,L.A. Mathis a treat for lovers of romance, crime, or mathematics.

James D. Steinis emeritus professor in the Department of Mathematics at California State University, Long Beach. His books includeCosmic Numbers(Basic) andHow Math Explains the World(Smithsonian). Fun for any crime-fiction lover who fancies a spot of mathematical adventuring, or vice versa. ---Brian Clegg,Popular Science James D Stein . . . explains in the prelS,