Group Theory in the Bedroom

Brian Hayes, since 1993 the “Computing Science” columnist for American Scientist magazine, is an unrepentant numbers nut. His second book (following 2005’s Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape) compiles and updates approximately a decade’s worth of his most significant articles, creating an elegant and high-minded overview of how rigorous mathematical laws intersect with and govern our daily lives. He notes, “The slogan under which I began—‘the pleasures of computation’—still seems an apt description of what it’s all about.” Still, this makes for intimidating reading, given that Hayes’s enthusiasm leads him to rush into the territory occupied by slippery concepts like Fibonacci numbers, and how various algorithms change our understanding of the Continental Divide.

The best chapters are the more accessible ones, which ground the arcana of math in historical narratives or familiar objects, addressing mysteries from clock making and gear theory to the problems of nomenclature: “ Might we run out of names before all the living things are described?” He has a keen eye for scientific trivia, as in the essay “Third Base,” which points out “People count by 10s and machines count by 2s.” As for the title essay, which sounds perfect for a layperson, it’s anything but spicy: It examines the many mathematical combinations presented by the ritual of mattress flipping. Hayes has an engaging tone, but many readers will find the rapid descents into hard math theory impenetrable. His essays speak to an astute, but selective, group.