L.A. Math

Romance, Crime, and Mathematics in the City of Angels

James D. Stein

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780691168289
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400873388
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Mathematics General
• Index: Literature

A collection of detective stories using math to solve crimes

Move over, Sherlock and Watson—the detective duo to be reckoned with. In the entertaining short-story collection L.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 instincts—and Pete's trusty math skills—solve the crime.

Featuring such glamorous locales as Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu, and Santa Barbara, the fourteen short stories in L.A. Math take 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 competitor—so 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. It's everything you expect from the City of Angels—A-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. Math is a treat for lovers of romance, crime, or mathematics.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface: L.A. Math
• Mathematical Topics by Chapter
• Chapter 1. A Change of Scene
• Chapter 2. The Case of the Vanishing Greenbacks
• Chapter 3. A Matter of Time
• Chapter 4. The Worst Forty Days since the Flood
• Chapter 5. The Accidental Guest
• Chapter 6. Message from a Corpse
• Chapter 7. Animal Passions
• Chapter 8. Nothing to Crow About
• Chapter 9. The Winning Streak
• Chapter 10. One Long Season
• Chapter 11. The Great Basketball Fix
• Chapter 12. It’s All in the Game
• Chapter 13. Division of Labor
• Chapter 14. The Quarterback Controversy
• Appendixes: Continuing the Investigations
• An Introduction to Sports Betting
• Notes
• Index