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Matt Parker's comic look at trigonometry is a bit heavy on the maths

Stand-up mathematician Matt Parker's Love Triangle is fast-paced, with nuggets about everything from impossible soccer balls to duck wakes. But it doesn't leave our reviewer understanding trigonometry any better

By Chris Stokel-Walker

26 June 2024

2F71A3H A Mallard duck on the River Avon, Warwick, Warwickshire, England, UK

A duck’s wake always forms an angle of 39 degrees. But what does that say about waves?

Colin Underhill/Alamy

Love Triangle
Matt Parker (Allen Lane)

Writing a popular science book that lures readers into often dense and difficult subjects isn’t a task for the faint-hearted. And Matt Parker, the best-selling author of Humble Pi and Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, should know all about that. He is, after all, one of an elite few who make it look effortless. Imagine my surprise, then, at finding his latest book, Love Triangle: The life-changing magic of trigonometry…

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