Guesstimation 2.0 - by Lawrence Weinstein (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Simple and effective techniques for quickly estimating virtually anything

Guesstimation 2.0 reveals the simple and effective techniques needed to estimate virtually anything--quickly--and illustrates them using an eclectic array of problems. A stimulating follow-up to Guesstimation, this is the must-have book for anyone preparing for a job interview in technology or finance, where more and more leading businesses test applicants using estimation questions just like these.

The ability to guesstimate on your feet is an essential skill to have in today's world, whether you're trying to distinguish between a billion-dollar subsidy and a trillion-dollar stimulus, a megawatt wind turbine and a gigawatt nuclear plant, or parts-per-million and parts-per-billion contaminants. Lawrence Weinstein begins with a concise tutorial on how to solve these kinds of order of magnitude problems, and then invites readers to have a go themselves. The book features dozens of problems along with helpful hints and easy-to-understand solutions. It also includes appendixes containing useful formulas and more.

Guesstimation 2.0 shows how to estimate everything from how closely you can orbit a neutron star without being pulled apart by gravity, to the fuel used to transport your food from the farm to the store, to the total length of all toilet paper used in the United States. It also enables readers to answer, once and for all, the most asked environmental question of our day: paper or plastic?

From the Back Cover

"This is an absolutely great book, a worthy sequel to Guesstimation. The breadth of scope of the problems is truly impressive. Weinstein's arguments are always convincing and, in many cases, very clever. His sense of humor provides a pain-free tutorial on how analysts can make real progress in understanding vaguely defined problems."--Paul J. Nahin, author of Number-Crunching: Taming Unruly Computational Problems from Mathematical Physics to Science Fiction

"Guesstimation 2.0 is an entertaining read, with the added attraction that it can be consumed in small portions by opening it on almost any page. I can easily see having this book close by and returning to it again and again."--Mark Levi, author of Why Cats Land on Their Feet: And 76 Other Physical Paradoxes and Puzzles

Review Quotes

"Guesstimation 2.0 is a book that was made to mediate between fun and useful. . . . Whether or not a fan of numbers, it's always cool to appear smart, therefore Guesstimation 2.0 is an excellent element to add to one's arsenal."---Sarthak Shankar, Organiser

"Guesstimation 2.0: Solving Today's Problems on the Back of a Napkin succeeds where most popular science literature so often fails. This is because it provides its readers with a scientific tool they can use immediately in their everyday lives. . . . [Makes] an excellent addition for the casual scientist, job interviewee, or anyone hoping to impress their friends at a party."---Gabriel Thoumi, Mongabay.com

"Guesstimation's problems are fun and engaging in character, and the solutions are intuitive and well explained. Each problem and solution stands independently, and is about four pages long, making the book ideal for passing a quick ten minutes, and easy to pick up and put down. If, like me, you like ill-posed questions to have concrete answers then Guesstimation is definitely a good place to hone your estimation skills!"---Fionntan Roukema, Mathematical Spectrum

"A delightful volume. . . . I hope to be able to use many of the tricks I learned in the future. I also hope to teach some of them to students. This would make a great secondary textbook in many classes, ranging from quantitative literacy to a science methods class for future educators. A careful study of this book would certainly improve a student's ability to take a complicated question, break it down into solvable parts, and assemble the parts to find an answer. Because this is quite close to what I want my students to do when faced with a difficult problem in pure mathematics as well, I consider this to be a very valuable book indeed."---Dominic Klyve, MAA Reviews

"Certainly a good read for any teacher who enjoys numbers and the world around us."---Mark Hughes, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School

"Readers who enjoyed Weinstein's first volume will be pleased with this instalment."-- "Choice"

"The books do a wonderful job at helping the reader to master the craft."-- "Cut the Knot Insights"

"This follow-up to the popular Guesstimation offers more on the joy of mathematical estimation, and inspiration for the budding analyst."-- "Nature"

About the Author

Lawrence Weinstein is University Professor of Physics at Old Dominion University. He is the coauthor of Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin (Princeton). Patricia Edwards is senior lecturer in art at Old Dominion University. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she lives in Norfolk, Virginia.