What are the chances of finding the owner of a forgotten umbrella on the bus by calling a random number? Why do you almost always have the feeling that you are waiting in the slowest line at the supermarket checkout? What is the relationship between mathematics and the music playing on your favorite CD?

In an infinite world, how could we all become millionaires? How complicated can a knot be? How much mathematics does a person actually need?

Mathematics Five-Minutes, a collection of 100 short texts first published in the newspaper Die Welt, presents a wide range of mathematical topics, with language accessible to all and rich explanatory illustrations. The texts highlight the relationship between mathematics and our daily lives.

From the parable of the rice grains, gambling, magic tricks with numbers and music, to paradoxes, infinity, probabilities, options rights, and quantum computers, these brief texts aim to show the reader that mathematics is useful, exciting, and absolutely necessary for understanding our world.