“Can mathematics help you win at Powerball? Improve your chances of finding a handsome man to date who’s not a jerk? How about prove the existence of God? While we’re at it, might the promise of such provocative explorations lure you into picking up a treatise on perhaps your least favorite subject?” writes Manil Suri in the opening paragraph of his Washington Post Book Review. The book in question is, “How Not to Be Wrong,” by Jordan Ellenberg. “Ellenberg’s talent for finding real-life situations that enshrine mathematical principles would be the envy of any math teacher. He presents these in …