Book excerpt: This isn’t a book of statistics and it isn’t a book of science. It has nothing whatsoever to do with actuaries or accountants. Number Freaking is a book of surreal sums and absurd arithmetic: it’s doodling with numbers, doing sums in your head just for fun, playing dice with the universe. It’s the art of putting numbers where none existed before to take an off-the-wall peek behind the curtains at how numbers rule our lives. It’s about taking numbers that were never meant to be in the same room, crashing them together and seeing what comes out the other end. Number Freaking reveals the low drama of life, the unexpected realities and unforeseen truths that emerge only when numbers are tested to destruction. How long would it take to drive your car to the moon? How many people on Earth are drunk right now? If you were falling from the world’s tallest building, would you have time to phone a friend to say goodbye? Which is more crowded: Jakarta, an IKEA store or Hell? How long will it take for America to eventually collide with Japan? What's a decent boyfriend worth… in chocolate? Discover for yourself how far you walk in a lifetime, how many people have ever lived and how to cure world debt in this essential guide to modern life.