The Calculus of Happiness - by Oscar Fernandez

Book Synopsis

How math holds the keys to improving one's health, wealth, and love life

What's the best diet for overall health and weight management? How can we change our finances to retire earlier? How can we maximize our chances of finding our soul mate?

In The Calculus of Happiness, Oscar Fernandez shows us that math yields powerful insights into health, wealth, and love. Using only high-school-level math (precalculus with a dash of calculus), Fernandez guides us through several of the surprising results, including an easy rule of thumb for choosing foods that lower our risk for developing diabetes (and that help us lose weight too), simple "all-weather" investment portfolios with great returns, and math-backed strategies for achieving financial independence and searching for our soul mate. Moreover, the important formulas are linked to a dozen free online interactive calculators on the book's website, allowing one to personalize the equations.

Fernandez uses everyday experiences--such as visiting a coffee shop--to provide context for his mathematical insights, making the math discussed more accessible, real-world, and relevant to our daily lives. Every chapter ends with a summary of essential lessons and takeaways, and for advanced math fans, Fernandez includes the mathematical derivations in the appendices.

A nutrition, personal finance, and relationship how-to guide all in one, The Calculus of Happiness invites you to discover how empowering mathematics can be.

From the Back Cover

"With an informal, engaging tone and sound applications, The Calculus of Happiness facilitates financial literacy. This is the first time I've encountered a book aimed at general readers that addresses the topic of financial mathematics. It is a valuable work that will serve as a lifelong resource."--John A. Adam, author of A Mathematical Nature Walk

"I absolutely love this book. The mathematics described is beautiful and accessible and, most important of all, truly meaningful and relevant."--James Tanton, author of Without Words: Mathematical Puzzles to Confound and Delight

"With its appealing informal style, choice of topics inspired by everyday life, and links to the relevant mathematical concepts and methods, this book shows how mathematics can improve one's quality of life. From healthy eating to managing the monthly budget, readers will look at their daily activities from an angle they may have never thought of."--Max Alekseyev, The George Washington University

Review Quotes

"The Calculus of Happiness . . . demonstrate[s] how mathematics can yield powerful insights into everyday life. . . . Someone with a robust desire to make serious changes in their life, or an interest in maths, will find much to consume in a book that teaches you how best to lose weight, how to build a sensible investment portfolio and even how to find the love of your life."---Helen Thomson, New Scientist

"[E]ngaging. . . . Readers are sure to get a sense of how content from algebra and precalculus can help inform us about important decisions that are almost universally relevant."---Jason M. Graham, MAA Reviews

"Brilliant. . . . Where Fernandez's book scores highly is that it goes beyond being a typical self-help manual for the numerate, by presenting example after example of how mathematical topics such as probability, game theory and exponential functions really do make sense of a world that can sometimes seem so subjective. It's also an easy-going analysis of those areas in life that get brushed under the carpet, to be attended to another day. Once you realise it all boils down to maths, you will wake up happier, wealthier and healthier tomorrow morning, and we have Oscar E. Fernandez to thank for that."---Nick Smith, Engineering & Technology

"Fernandez generates such enthusiasm [for studying math] by considering topics that people do want to learn more about--food, money, other people--and skillfully weaving solid mathematical concepts within these topics. . . . His strategy is designed to foster love, rather than fear, of mathematics. It is an elegant approach."---Sandra L. Arlinghaus, Mathematical Reviews

"I thinkThe Calculus of Happiness is really more of a maths book than a sort-out-your-life book but there is much that will make you think about your own health, wealth and love-life and, possibly, make some changes."---Anne Haworth, Mathematical Gazette

"Surveys a wide variety of ways that mathematics can be used to improve decision making and general well-being. . . . [Fernandez] believes that even a smidgeon of algebra can encapsulate a lot of wisdom."---TIME.com

"There are plenty of books about managing your wealth, but The Calculus of Happiness: How a Mathematical Approach to Life Adds Up to Health, Wealth, and Love, by Oscar Fernandez of Princeton University Press, sounds intriguing."---Matthew Partridge, Money Week

"This book consists of a range of entertaining topics that show the surprising real significance of mathematics in three important aspects of everyday life, which the reader of any mathematical ability can relate to."---Francis McGonigal CMath MIMA, Institute of Mathematics

About the Author

Oscar E. Fernandez is assistant professor of mathematics at Wellesley College and the author of Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All around Us. He also writes about mathematics for the Huffington Post and on his website, surroundedbymath.com.