The Lady Tasting Tea

By David Salsburg,

Book cover of The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century

Book description

An insightful, revealing history of the magical mathematics that transformed our world. The Lady Tasting Tea is not a book of dry facts and figures, but the history of great individuals who dared to look at the world in a new way.

At a summer tea party in Cambridge, England,…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Lady Tasting Tea as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

As a professor at MIT, I used this book to introduce undergraduates in my course in environmental science to the love of statistics. No doubt it is a fun read because students in disciplines like engineering, biology, physics, and mathematics actually read it! I decided to use it for my course because of its entertaining approach to introducing fundamental statistical concepts and methods as it develops the history of the discipline with amusing color commentary about the principal players who starred in it.

Without sound statistical analyses, experimental data are figments of scientists’ imagination. It is a must-read to enjoy…

Want books like The Lady Tasting Tea?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Lady Tasting Tea.

Browse books like The Lady Tasting Tea

Book cover of The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change
Book cover of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Book cover of The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,593

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in math, mathematicians, and philosophy?

Math 276 books
Mathematicians 38 books
Philosophy 1,790 books