N-P-R.

Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus.

For a lot of people these words dredge up old feelings of boredom or dread.

And that's because when a lot of us encounter math in school it can often feel like this arcane set of rules.

A baffling series of letters and numbers and arduous problem sets and to what end exactly, right?

Like how many of us have said to ourselves when am I going to actually have to use this in life?

And because of all this some people grow up to have feelings about math.

Like math is scary or opaque or that is not for me but it's for somebody else.

This is the indicator for planet money, I'm Adrienne Ma.

And our guest Eugenia Chang just put out a book called Is Math Real?

And in it she argues that regardless of the grades you got in algebra, math is actually something we can all nerd out on.

And once you see it like this, she says it can change the way you see everyday things.

Eugenia Chang is a mathematician and scientist and residence at the school of the art institute of Chicago.

Her new book is called Is Math Real? Eugenia, thanks for coming on the indicator.

Thank you so much for having me.

Can you tell me what inspired you to write a book with a title that is already sending me into an existential tailspin?

I hope that's a good existential tailspin.

I like to remind you that there's a subtitle as well so it's not a whole book about whether math is real or not.

The subtitle is about how simple questions lead us to mathematics deepest truths.

And that's really what it's about.

It's about the fact that math seems like it's about answering questions but really it's about asking questions.

And I meet so many people who say that they tried to ask questions in math class at school

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