“Abjure the hypotenuse!” That’s what our busy high school dean (also assistant headmaster and sole college counselor) George Grenville Benedict—called G2 by the students (behind his back)—was famous for saying. As my classmate Alba Briggs publicly observed on screen in… Read More ›
Math
Music to our ears
All math teachers and mathematicians love music, but not all musicians love math. That has been my experience, at any rate, based on a fairly large sample. Recently I listened to a Freakonomics episode featuring British mathematician Sarah Hart, in… Read More ›
Should you switch?
No, I don’t mean switch from Coke to Pepsi, nor from math to linguistics. I am not even referring to the Monty Hall problem, though that seems more likely under the circumstances. I am talking about the fascinating two-envelope paradox…. Read More ›
Democracy? How could geometry tell us anything about democracy? To find out, read Shape, by Jordan Ellenberg!
Even if you don’t usually read applied math books, you need to read Shape, by Jordan Ellenberg. The subtitle tells you more than the title: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else. Yes, I know, it… Read More ›
They say that America’s math curriculum doesn’t add up. But is that true?
What’s wrong with America’s math curriculum? I’ve written endlessly on this subject, but for now I want to focus on the claims of Steven Levitt and others in a new version of an earlier Freakonomics episode. Levitt et al. are… Read More ›
A Prime Mistake
To be sure, nine, along with three and seven, are great favorites of European folklore. No one knows for sure why just those numerals achieved such prominence. The reference to the fact that all of them are primes does not go far. So says… Read More ›
Should we be teaching applied math in high school?
“Of course we should,” I hear you say. “What good is math if it doesn’t have any read-world applications?” Let me unpack your reply. In one short paragraph it brings up at least half a dozen responses. We’ll discuss a… Read More ›
Yikes! Lying with statistics! About COVID! And from Massachusetts officials, no less!
Apparently schools are magical places where kids don’t get COVID. You know, because youth. To prove this, the Mass Department of Public Health has just released this informative graph: Look at the bars. As you can tell from a mere… Read More ›
Goat problems!
No, no, we’re not talking about your pet goat’s behavioral problems. We’re talking about a certain type of math problem—a type of problem to which I used to devote a couple of classes per year when I was teaching Honors… Read More ›
A beautiful abacus set… and it was free! Free is good.
A family giving away their beautiful abacus set! Who could resist? Not me. As you will see in the photos below, we have an authentic Chinese abacus in pristine condition, inside a box in pristine condition, along with an undated… Read More ›
“Can data solve our wicked problems?”
That’s a direct quote from an audience member in yesterday’s online program at the Leventhal Center: “Can data solve our wicked problems?” The program, titled “Matt Bui on how communities use & refuse data about themselves,” was part of the… Read More ›
Calendrical linguistics: What a wonderfully nerdy combination!
You’ve wondered, I’m sure, about some of our names for the months. Perhaps you are puzzled about why October is the tenth month when the name clearly suggests that it should be the eighth. Similarly for September, November, and December…. Read More ›
What? A model railroad can be a computational device and a musical instrument?!
Surely you’re joking, Mr. Aaronson. I can (just barely) believe the musical instrument claim, but a computational device??? Actually, both claims are true, hard as it is to believe. For the musical instrument, watch this short video and you’ll see… Read More ›
A new unit of distance?
No, this sign isn’t at a Starbucks:
A supposedly “new” way to solve quadratics
What’s wrong with the Quadratic Formula? Let me count the ways: It’s pure magic to 99% of high-school students, who have no idea why it works. It lends itself to sign errors because of the subtraction under the square root… Read More ›
Pi(e) day: not actually a national holiday!
OK, I tried to release this at precisely 3/14 1:59:26.535897932384. How well did I do? But why would the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) lie to us about Pi Day? This is just too distressing for words: Declared a… Read More ›
Why do physicists play dominoes? And what’s the connection between the Aztecs and the Arctic Circle anyway?
I’m sure you’ve been wondering: what’s a mathologer? Or perhaps you should ask “Who’s The Mathologer?” In that case, the answer is easy: The Mathologer is Burkard Polster. I’m kidding about part of this, of course—not about his name, which… Read More ›
The Princess Bride revisited
“Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” That’s the line I’ve remembered for more than three decades. Yes, it has been that long since The Princess Bride was first released! How well has this movie held up? Amazingly well, I… Read More ›
Suppose you lived on a dodecahedron. How would you avoid your neighbors?
“Suppose you lived on a dodecahedron,” I say. “How would you avoid your neighbors?” “But I don’t live on a dodecahedron,” you claim. “Anyway, what if I don’t want to avoid my neighbors?” Stop! This is mathematics. We make abstractions away from the real… Read More ›
A number theory discovery by a 12-year-old Nigerian boy! And one by an 11-year-old Massachusetts girl!
Everyone knows the stereotype: mathematical discoveries are made by white and Asian males in their 20s and 30s. Right? Well, like all stereotypes, there’s a certain amount of statistical reality that supports this impression and obscures all examples to the… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 