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Partial truths : how fractions distort our thinking (Record no. 33632)

MARC details
000 -LEADER
fixed length control field a
008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION
fixed length control field 250423b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 9780231216623
082 ## - DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION NUMBER
Classification number 153.42
Item number ZIM
100 ## - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME
Personal name Zimring,James C.
245 ## - TITLE STATEMENT
Title Partial truths : how fractions distort our thinking
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (IMPRINT)
Name of publisher, distributor, etc Columbia University Press,
Date of publication, distribution, etc 2024
Place of publication, distribution, etc New york :
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Extent x, 244 p. ;
Other physical details ill., (some col.),
Dimensions 24 cm
365 ## - TRADE PRICE
Price amount 1800.00
Price type code ₹
Unit of pricing 01
504 ## - BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC. NOTE
Bibliography, etc Includes bibliographical references and index.
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC.
Summary, etc Yogi Berra once went into a restaurant and ordered a pizza. When the cook behind the counter asked him if he wanted it cut into four or six pieces, he answered, "you better cut the pizza into four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six." On a more serious note, in 1979, a student at Michigan State University disappeared; a potential suicide note was found in his room but his body was not. The student happened to be an avid Dungeons & Dragons player. Much media hype chalked his apparent suicide up to the role playing game and wondered if there could be a causal link: a string of other adolescent suicides and homicides occurred in the 1980s among D&D players. However, the rate of suicides among American teenagers at that time was about 28 per 1 million. The rate of the same among D&D players was just over 9 per 1 million. Ultimately, the number of suicides among D&D players was actually much lower than the national average, so the alarm about the dangers of D&D was unreasonable. In this book, James Zimring explores a specific kind of error in human thinking that we make when we're looking at, for example, risks and odds, probabilities, rates, percentages, and frequencies. These circumstances have one thing in common: they can all be represented as fractions. It is hard to navigate modern life without encountering and using these concepts. Exploring how fractions work and how we understand (and misunderstand) them can allow us to see why many of our deep seated intuitive thought processes, however they work neurologically, are susceptible to errors. It can also show us that what are errors in some settings can be great advantages in others. Overall, it can help us understand ourselves. As an aside, for anyone wondering: the MSU student described in the first paragraph called detectives about a month after his disappearance from the oil field where he was working in Louisiana and asked to be retrieved
650 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Cognitive Neuropsychology
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Anthropic principle
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Availability heuristic
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Confirmation bias
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Hydroxychloroquine
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Publication bias
942 ## - ADDED ENTRY ELEMENTS (KOHA)
Source of classification or shelving scheme Dewey Decimal Classification
Item type Books
Holdings
Withdrawn status Lost status Source of classification or shelving scheme Damaged status Not for loan Home library Current library Date acquired Source of acquisition Cost, normal purchase price Total Checkouts Full call number Barcode Date last seen Date last borrowed Koha item type
    Dewey Decimal Classification     DAU DAU 09/04/2025 KBD 1800.00 3 153.42 ZIM 035375 26/11/2025 12/11/2025 Books