Steven Strogatz is a professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University.
He is the author, most recently, of “The Calculus of Friendship,” the story of his 30-year correspondence with his high school calculus teacher. In this series, which appears every Monday, he takes readers from the basics of math to the baffling.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/from-fish-to-infinity/?hp
I think this will be a great way to explain math to not only children but also adults who struggle with math.. The article already shows how easy math can be by using the Fish example from Sesame Street..I love how the article shows how mysterious numbers can be,, sort of like math philosophy or something.. It explained everything very easily.. And again just loved the Sesame Street video for pre school math! Didnt we all watch Sesame Street!!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article! (I especially loved the Sesame street Clip-used to watch that religiously as a toddler)
ReplyDeleteWhat Strogatz said about the "paradoxical" nature of math is a very interesting philosophical conundrum. While humans invented this seemingly arbitrary system of numbers, Strogatz eloquently puts it, "once we decide what we mean by them we have no say in how they behave." This begs the question: did humans invent mathematics, as just an amusing mind game, (platonism) or did we simply discover it, and clothe the beast our own linguistic fabric (mathematical realism)?
This question seems to beget even more questions...
Did mathematics always exist, always manifest itself in the universe?
Is the universe ruled by math, or is math ruled by the universe?
Which came first?
What is
The fish, fish, fish...explanation makes good sense...coming from a Logicism math philosophy point of view...I can't wait to see how he explains the essence of more complex and ineffable math terms..
i think this is very interesting. i also think is very cool that this guy would like to teach his friend math. when he first said that it was not going to be childish but he reverts back to a children show. its quite funny to see that you can learn advance math from a children show if you apply the same elements to advanced math. i love it!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this article. The author does a great job describing why mathematics can be so difficult to grasp. For me at least, the fact that math works on an abstract level makes it hard for me to hold onto what I have learned. I do better when I can make tangible connections with the material I am learning. The "fish, fish, fish" method of making making math into a concrete subject breaks down at the calculus level. I am often left floundering.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the fact that math is largely an abstract and seemingly human contrived subject also makes math beautiful. Math serves as a metaphor for the rules that apply to our universe. As we extend the metaphor, we cannot control what we describe and so mathematics take on a power of their own. The same concept applies to all sciences to an extent. As we struggle to comprehend the incomprehensible we are forced to compromise our descriptions and so science becomes abstract. One cannot hope to comprehend the vastness of infinity or the nature of a quantum particle. Instead we use a symbol or a model as shorthand for what lies beyond our imagination. As the author stated, we gain the ability to manipulate concepts but at the price of understanding their essence.
I look forward to continuing to read the column.
I didn't clearly understand this article, and after reading it again, i'm still foggy on whether i understand this completely or not.
ReplyDeleteIt's honestly a mystery where the actual number systems came from. Why was it created? Why does the whole world go by one number system, unlike languages? Or how would we do the action "count" when there is no way that we can "count"? It's funny how we haven't asked these questions before, we're so many generations after the number system was created that we just use it without questioning.
At the part when this person starts to speak about the fact that as adults we make the meaning of the number more "mysterious" to understand. Just saying the number "6" can confuse other because we're not being specific about the item that we're referring the number 6 to. The way i see it, if someone says the number 6 to me, i refer back to the latest thing that i remember. For example, if we're talking about fish like the video, i would refer it to fish. But i guess it just depends on the person and how their brain functions.
I think the number system
At first I found this article cryptic but, at second glance I came to realize what this article was about. Which is about how numbers aren't physically there. I look forward to when this series will come out.
ReplyDeleteAlex Pucciarelli
This article reminded me of my kindergarten math work. The assignments were really simple, but I didn't know what to do with it and just put random numbers as my answers. Then I discovered the meanings of the minus sign and the plus sign and learned to incorporate them with numbers.
ReplyDeleteThe article also points out that numbers form a patterns. They are not controlled, but they are just there. They don't really exist, but they are like names given to represent quantities.