This is a review of the book Mapmatics: How we Navigate the World through Numbers by Paulina Rowińska. We were kindly sent a copy of the book to look at, and Elinor Flavell shares her thoughts.
Do you love maps? Do you hate maps? Have you never given much thought to maps but are now worried that it might be good to know how to navigate if your phone dies? Well, Mapmatics is for you!
Do you know a geography nerd who is always bringing up maps? Do you know someone who always seems to get lost, despite it being easier than ever to get around? Or do you have that one friend who still doesn’t believe that everything can be related to maths? Well, Mapmatics is for them!
Mapmatics is for everyone!
Mapmatics is for you, and for anyone in your life who would like to more deeply understand the connections between maths and the world around them. On the surface Mapmatics is a book about how we create and use maps to interpret the world around us. But Rowińska shows that the reason we can do all of these things with maps is because of mathematics.
Over eight chapters, Rowińska talks us through problems that humans have wrestled with through the centuries – from “how can we take a 3D globe and turn it into a 2D map?” to “how can we map the inside of our planet without actually going to the centre of the earth?”. And with each problem she takes us through the underlying mathematics. Each chapter explores a different aspect of maps, and includes a diverse range of topics, from gerrymandering to the London Tube map.
Rowińska does a great job at explaining some rather complicated ideas while talking about lots of other researchers, giving you plenty of resources to go and learn more about a certain subject, if you so wish; and she includes some very helpful diagrams! She is very good at defining and explaining geography jargon in terms which a geography novice such as myself could understand. However, I would have found it helpful to include a glossary in the book so I could refer back to them. I also found it rather refreshing that in her examples she does not stick to the gender neutral “he” when talking about a random person experiencing something.
I have two primary criticisms of the book: Rowińska starts off the book by talking about her first experience of maps, but I would love to know more about her link to maps and geography and what prompted her to write the book in the first place. Secondly, I would love to see even more diagrams – in colour- in the book as I think this would support some of the more difficult mathematical ideas included. However, I realise this is the eternal struggle between author and publisher.
This book would suit anyone who loves understanding the mathematics behind things that we use every day. From a technical point of view, I would recommend having at least done mathematics in your final years of secondary school, as some of the mathematics presented would be challenging otherwise.
Overall, this is an engaging book that covers a huge variety of applications – from earthquakes to animation, and will be of interest to anyone who likes to understand the intersection between maths and other topics.
Mapmatics, at Pan Macmillan
Mapmatics, at Bookshop.org
Mapmatics, at Waterstones.com
