How Many Licks?: Or, How to Estimate Damn Near Anything

By By Aaron Santos, Ph.D.
Running Press, $14.95, 175 pages

How Many Licks? Or, How to Estimate Damn Near Anything by Aaron Santos is about the importance of using precision when dealing with numbers. Most people use approximation for just about everything. The exact time may be 8:33:46, and someone may tell you it is 8:30 a.m. Unless you are creating the universe, you may ask: Who cares? This subject is genius, but is it really? Can the average person with limited math abilities benefit from How Many Licks? : Or, How to Estimate Damn Near Anything?

According to the author, approximation is a valuable intellectual tool that helps you to conceptualize numbers and works as a filter that can weed out bad ideas. With simple arithmetic and practice, you can estimate just about anything and grow comfortable understanding large numbers in the process.

Does Dr. Aaron Santos give examples and the equations to find the answers to practical and impractical questions only because he has a Ph.D.? Regardless of your math level, How Many Licks: Or, How to Estimate Damn Near Anything is interesting and presents a question and an equation that will cause you to go figure.

Reviewed by Vivian Dixon Sober