Shorelines examples from "How Long Is A Piece Of String?" by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham "All bubbles burst eventually. Pyramid schemes are self-created bubbles, which continue to inflate until the money runs out or investors lose their nerve. Because they are built on nothing but promises, they cannot make money for anyone except for the people who set them up and the early investors." "Three men in a restaurant are presented with a bill for £25. They give the waiter £30, in £10 notes, and he returns with £5 in loose change. The men take £3, and leave £2 as a tip. The men have now each paid out £9, making £27 in total. The waiter has a £2 tip. £27 + £2 = £29. But the men gave the waiter £30, so £1 is missing. Who is conning whom?." "Is it quicker to take the stairs? In more modern lifts, the most likely reason why a lift seems to ignore a caller is that the customer has asked to go down, and the passing lift is currently on an up journey." "...a tendency to distort the truth when describing oneself, which means that the distance calculation will only be finding the compatibility with the person you say you are. That might be very different from the real you. " JACKET NOTES "Have you ever wondered how the meter in a taxi works? Or why a lift takes so long to respond to your call? Do you want to know the best strategy for playing 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?' Is there a mathematical secret to manufacturing pop music? In this sequel to the bestselling 'Why Do Buses Come in Threes?', you will find the answers to these and many other intriguing questions of everyday life. Discover the astonishing '37% rule' for blind dates, the avoidance tactic of the gentlemen's urinal and some extraordinary scams that have been devised to get rich quick. Here you will also find the origins of the seven-day week and the seven-note scale; an explanation of why underdogs win; some clever techniques for detecting fraud; and the reason why epidemics sweep across a nation and disappear just as quickly. 'How Long is a Piece of String?' is the perfect book for anyone curious about the way in which maths underlies so much in our everyday lives. Whatever your mathematical ability, you will find this book informative, thought-provoking and most of all, fun. Published by Robson Books Ltd in the UK ISBN 1 86105 505 6 bs@shorelinesart.co.uk cartoons strips caricatures cards illustration models info home