The maths we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. Jordan Ellenberg shows how wrong this view is through stories that show the power of mathematical thinking. Buy Jordan's book "How Not to Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life" - https://geni.us/aBdKqAq Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe Maths touches everything we do, allowing us to see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. Maths is the science of not being wrong, worked out through centuries of hard work and argument. Jordan Ellenberg is a professor of Mathematics at University of Wisconsin, and the 'Do the Math' columnist at Slate. His book 'How not to be wrong: The hidden mathematics of everyday life' was be published in June 2015. The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter