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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murderous Maths | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murderous_Maths | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:45:54.477242+00:00 | kb-cron |
Murderous Maths is a series of British educational books by author Kjartan Poskitt. Most of the books in the series are illustrated by illustrator Philip Reeve, with the exception of "The Secret Life of Codes", which is illustrated by Ian Baker, "Awesome Arithmetricks" illustrated by Daniel Postgate and Rob Davis, and "The Murderous Maths of Everything", also illustrated by Rob Davis. The Murderous Maths books have been published in over 25 countries. The books, which are aimed at children aged 8 and above, teach maths, spanning from basic arithmetic to relatively complex concepts such as the quadratic formula and trigonometry. The books are written in an informal similar style to the Horrible Histories, Horrible Science and Horrible Geography series, involving evil geniuses, gangsters, and a generally comedic tone.
== Development == The first two books of the series were originally part of "The Knowledge" (now "Totally") series, itself a spin-off of Horrible Histories. However, these books were eventually redesigned and they, as well as the rest of the titles in the series, now use the Murderous Maths banner. According to Poskitt, "these books have even found their way into schools and proved to be a boost to GCSE studies". The books are also available in foreign editions, including: German, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Greek, Dutch, Norwegian, Turkish, Croatian, Italian, Lithuanian, Korean, Danish, Hungarian, Finnish, Thai and Portuguese (Latin America). In 2009, the books were redesigned again, changing the cover art style and the titles of most of the books in the series. Poskitt's goal, according to the Murderous Maths website, is to write books that are "something funny to read", have "good amusing illustrations", include "tricks", and "explaining the maths involved as clearly as possible". He adds that although he doesn't "work to any government imposed curriculum or any stage achievement levels", he has "been delighted to receive many messages of support and thanks from parents and teachers in the UK, the United States and elsewhere".
== Titles == The following are the thirteen books that are available in the series.
Guaranteed to Bend Your Brain (previously Murderous Maths) (1997), ISBN 0-439-01156-6 - (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, powers, tessellation, Roman numerals, the development of the "10" and the place system, shortcomings of calculators, prime numbers, time - how the year and day got divided, digital/analogue clocks, angles, introduction to real Mathematicians, magic squares, mental arithmetic, card trick with algebra explanation, rounding and symmetry.) Guaranteed to Mash your Mind (previously More Murderous Maths) (1998), ISBN 0-439-01153-1 (the monomino, domino, tromino, tetromino, pentomino, hexomino and heptomino, length area and volume, dimensions, measuring areas and volumes, basic rectangle and triangle formulas, speed, conversion of units, Möbius strip, Pythagoras, right-angled triangles, irrational numbers, pi, area and perimeter, bisecting angles, triangular numbers, topology networks, magic squares.) Awesome Arithmetricks (previously The Essential Arithmetricks: How to + - × ÷) (1998), ISBN 0-439-01157-4 - (counting, odd even and negative numbers, signs of maths, place value and rounding off, manipulating equations, + - x ÷ %, long division, times tables, estimation, decimal signs, QED.) The Mean & Vulgar Bits (previously The Mean & Vulgar Bits: Fractions and Averages) (2000), ISBN 0-439-01270-8 (fractions, converting improper and mixed fractions, adding subtracting multiplying and dividing fractions, primes and prime factors, reducing fractions, highest common factor and lowest common denominators, Egyptian fractions, comparing fractions, cancelling out fractions, converting fractions to decimals, decimal place system, percentages: increase and decrease, averages: mean mode and median.) Desperate Measures (previously Desperate Measures: Length, Area and Volume) (2000), ISBN 0-439-01370-4 (measuring lines: units and accuracy, old measuring systems, the development of metric, the SI system and powers of ten, shapes, measuring areas and area formulas, weight, angles, measuring volume, Archimedes Principle, density, time and how the modern calendar developed.) Do You Feel Lucky? (previously Do You Feel Lucky: The Secrets of Probability) (2001), ISBN 0-439-99607-4 (chance, tree diagrams, mutually exclusive and independent chances, Pascal's Triangle, permutations and combinations, sampling.) Savage Shapes (previously Vicious Circles and Other Savage Shapes) (2002), ISBN 0-439-99747-X (signs in geometric diagrams, Loci, constructions: perpendicular bisectors; dropping perpendiculars; bisecting angles, triangles: similar; congruent; equal areas, polygons: regular; irregular; angle sizes and construction, tessellations and Penrose Tiles, origami, circles: chord; tangent; angle theorems, regular solids, Euler's formula, ellipses, Geometric proof of Pythagoras' Theorem.) The Key To The Universe (previously Numbers: The Key To The Universe) (2002), ISBN 0-439-98116-6 (phi, Fibonacci Series, Golden Ratio, properties of Square, Triangle, Cube, Centred Hexagon and Tetrahedral numbers, "difference of two squares", number superstitions, prime numbers, Mersenne primes, tests to see if a number will divide by anything from 2-13 and 19, finger multiplication, binary, octal, and hexadecimal, perfect numbers, tricks of the nine times table, irrational transcendental and imaginary numbers, infinity.) The Phantom X (previously The Phantom X: Algebra) (2003), ISBN 0-439-97729-0 (variables, elementary algebra, brackets, factorising, expanding, and simplifying expressions, solving quadratics and the quadratic formula, "Think of a number" tricks, difference of two squares, coefficients of (a-b)n, linear graphs: co-ordinates; gradients; y intercept, non-linear function graphs including parabolas, simultaneous equations: substitution and elimination, dividing by zero!.) The Fiendish Angletron (previously The Fiendish Angletron: Trigonometry) (2004), ISBN 0-439-96859-3 (scales and ratios in maps and diagrams, protractor and compass, SIN, COS and TAN ratios in right angled triangles, trig on a calculator; normal and inverse, sine and cosine formulas for non-right-angled triangles, triangulation, parallax angles and parsecs, sin/cos/tan relationships, sin wave, bearings.) The Perfect Sausages (previously The Perfect Sausage and other Fundamental Formulas) (2005), ISBN 0-439-95901-2 (areas and volumes, ellipsoids and toruses, number formulas (e.g. triangle, hexagonal), speed, acceleration, stopping time, distance, force, gravity, projectiles, Money: percentages; simple and compound interest, permutations and combinations.) The 5ecret L1fe of Code5 (previously Codes: How to Make Them and Break Them) (2007), ISBN 978-1-4071-0715-8 (patterns, logic and deduction, prime numbers, high powers, modular arithmetic.) Easy Questions, Evil Answers (2010), ISBN 1-407-11451-4 (formulas, working out square roots by hand, π, Pythagoras, paradoxes, problem solving, metric prefixes, large numbers, vectors.) Related puzzle books have been published also: