Zombies and Calculus

Colin Adams

ISBN 10: 0691161909 / ISBN 13: 9780691161907

Published by Princeton University Press, 2014

About this Item

Num Pages: 240 pages, 47 line illus. BIC Classification: FJ; FK; FM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 224 x 141 x 21. Weight in Grams: 396. . 2014. Hardcover. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780691161907

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Zombies and Calculus
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691161909
• ISBN 13: 9780691161907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A novel that uses calculus to help you survive a zombie apocalypse

How can calculus help you survive the zombie apocalypse? Colin Adams, humor columnist for the Mathematical Intelligencer and one of today's most outlandish and entertaining popular math writers, demonstrates how in this zombie adventure novel.

Zombies and Calculus is the account of Craig Williams, a math professor at a small liberal arts college in New England, who, in the middle of a calculus class, finds himself suddenly confronted by a late-arriving student whose hunger is not for knowledge. As the zombie virus spreads and civilization crumbles, Williams uses calculus to help his small band of survivors defeat the hordes of the undead. Along the way, readers learn how to avoid being eaten by taking advantage of the fact that zombies always point their tangent vector toward their target, and how to use exponential growth to determine the rate at which the virus is spreading. Williams also covers topics such as logistic growth, gravitational acceleration, predator-prey models, pursuit problems, the physics of combat, and more. With the aid of his story, you too can survive the zombie onslaught.

Featuring easy-to-use appendixes that explain the book's mathematics in greater detail, Zombies and Calculus is suitable both for those who have only recently gotten the calculus bug, as well as for those whose disease has advanced to the multivariable stage.

About the Author

Colin Adams is professor of mathematics at Williams College and the author of many books, including How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide. He is also the humor columnist for Mathematical Intelligencer.