Stealing the idea from Nancy Vu’s “Just Little Things,” I tried to reflect on some mathematical things that give us delight and pleasure as we go about our hectic 24/7/365 lives.
Here are some of my personal mathematical pleasures.
It’s now your turn to reflect on some aha! mathematical moments to share with the rest of us.
References
Wu, N. (2013). Just little things: A celebration of life’s simple pleasures. New York: A Perigee Book.
© Yan Kow Cheong, November 10, 2013.
“The Parrot’s Theorem” (translated from “Le Théorème du Perroquet”) was an instant bestseller in France when it was published in 1998.
Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind and G. H. Hardy’s A Mathematician Apology are two nonfiction mathematical classics for both mathematicians and mathematics educators. Lesser known are the mathematical novels which often feature characters whose speciality is number theory, also known as higher arithmetic, and elevated as math’s purest abstract branch.
Mathematics à la Tom Clancy
Two novels that revolve around famous unsolved problems in mathematics are Philibert Schogt’s The Wild Numbers and Apostolis Doxiadis’s Uncle Petros & Goldbach’s Conjecture.
If you’re looking for math, women, sex, and back-stabbing, The Wild Numbers is a math melodrama unlikely to disappoint.
Fictional math
Who are these mathematical fiction books targeted? Math and science teachers? Educated laypersons? Pure mathematicians may like to read them, yet at the same time they may complain that the mathematics discussed in these books is anything but rigorous.
These books seldom fail to convey the following subtle messages:
• The thin line between mathematical genius and madness.
• The search for mathematical truth at all costs, and the heavy price of finding it.
• The arrogance and pride of pure mathematicians who look down on their peers, most of whom work as applied mathematicians and research scientists.
• The relatively high divorce rate among first-rate mathematicians as compared to their peers in other disciplines.
• Mathematics is apparently a young’s man game; one has past one’s prime if one hasn’t written one’s best paper by the age of 40.
• Mathematicians are from Mars; math educators are from Venus.
• Pure mathematicians (or number theorists) are first-rate mathematicians; applied mathematicians are second- or third-rate mathematicians. To the left of the “mathematical intelligence” bell curve are math educators from schools of education, and high-school math teachers.
“Reality Conditions” is collection of 16 short stories, which is ideal for leisure reading—it’s suitable for promoting quantitative literacy, or it’d serve as the basis for a creative course on “Mathematics in Fiction.”
The joy of reading mathematics
Let’s rekindle the joy of appreciating mathematics for mathematics’s sake. Let’s welcome poetry, design thinking, and creativity, whatever ingredient that may help to draw the community into recognizing and appreciating the language of science and of technology. These “pure-math-for-poets” titles have a place in our mathematics curriculum, as they could help promote the humanistic element of mathematics.
Here are ten titles you may wish to introduce to your students, as part of a mathematics appreciation or enrichment course.
The New York Times Book of Mathematics
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010
Clifton Fadiman’s Fantasia Mathematica
Clifton Fadiman’s The Mathematical Magpie
Don DeLillo’s Ratner’s Star
Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland
Hiroshi Yuki’s Math Girls
John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines
Philip J. Davis’s The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn
Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow
References
Green, J. (2006). An abundance of Katherines. New York: Dutton Books.
Guedj, D. (2000). The parrot’s theorem. London: Orion Books Ltd.
Kolata, G. & Hoffman, P. (eds.) (2013). The New York Times book of mathematics: More than 100 years of writing by the numbers. New York: Sterling.
Hiroshi, Y. (2011). Math girls. Austin, Texas: Bento Books.
Pitici, M. (ed.) (2011). The best writing on mathematics 2010. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Wallace, D. F. (2012). Both flesh and not: Essays. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Woolfe, S. (1996). Leaning towards infinity: A novel. NSW, Australia: Random House Australia Pty Ltd.
© Yan Kow Cheong, September 12, 2013.
In Singapore, every year around this time, folks who believe in hungry ghosts celebrate the one-month-long “Hungry Ghost Festival” (also known as the “Seventh Month”). The Seventh Month is like an Asian equivalent of Halloween, extended to one month—just spookier.
If you think that these spiritual vagabonds encircling the island are mere fictions or imaginations of some superstitious or irrational local folks who have put their blind faith in them, you’re in for a shock. These evil spirits can drive the hell out of ghosts agnostics, including those who deny the existence of such spiritual beings.
Hell money superstitious [or innumerate] folks can buy for a few bucks to pacify the “hungry ghosts.”
During the fearful Seventh Month, devotees would put on hold major life decisions, be it about getting married, purchasing a house, or signing a business deal. If you belong to the rational type, there’s no better time in Singapore to tie the knot (albeit there’s no guarantee that all your guests would show up on your D-Day); in fact, you can get the best deal of the year if your wedding day also happens to fall on a Friday 13—an “unlucky date” in an “unlucky month.”
Problem solving in the Seventh Month
I have no statistical data of the number of math teachers, who are hardcore Seventh Month disciples, who would play it safe, by going on some “mathematical fast” or diet during this fearful “inaupicious month.” As for the rest of us, let’s not allow fear, irrationality, or superstition to paralyze us from indulging into some creative mathematical problem solving.
Let’s see how the following “ghost” word problem may be solved using the Stack Method, a commonly used problem-solving strategy, slowing gaining popularity among math educators outside Singapore (which has often proved to be as good as, if not better than, the bar method in a number of problem-situations).
During the annual one-month-long Hungry Ghost Festival, a devotee used 1/4 and $45 of the amount in his PayHell account to buy an e-book entitled That Place Called Hades. He then donated 1/3 and $3 of the remaining amount to an on-line mortuary, whose members help to intercede for long-lost wicked souls. In the end, his PayHell account showed that he only had $55 left. How much money did he have at first?
Try solving this, using the Singapore model, or bar, method, before peeking at the quick-and-dirty stack-method solutions below.
He had $196 in his PayHell account at first.
Alternatively, we may represent the stack drawing as follows:
The devotee had $196 in his account at first.
Another way of solving the “ghost question” is depicted below.
He had $196 in his PayHell account at first.
A prayerful exercise for the lost souls
Let me end with a “wicked problem” I initially included in Aha! Math, a recreational math title I wrote for elementary math students. My challenge to you is to solve this rate question, using the Singapore bar method; better still, what about using the stack method? Happy problem solving!
One thing is almost certain is that if Danica McKellar, actress and mathematician-turned-math-author, were to write a book on Singapore math, my bet is that it would unlikely be approved by the Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE), although few would deny that her title would probably be a terrific draw among local students, even in conservative or puritan Singapore—it may even end up being the first math book on a Singapore bestseller’s list.
Going by her math titles (Kiss my math; Math doesn’t sulk; and Hot algebra exposed!), which are primarily targeted at an American or liberal audience, should the TV personality be tempted to write a math book for a local audience, it would be a miracle if her manuscript got pass the first round of Singapore’s MOE’s censorship board—not before making most MOE curriculum specialists flush of embarrassment.
Would you buy this math title for your son or daughter?
Infidel Math
A Math Role Model for Girls (and Boys)
In math education circles, it’s not surprising that Danica McKellar is regarded by many [open-minded] parents and math educators as a terrific role model [for girls and young women]. She teaches the value of confidence that comes from feeling [math-]smart. Her supporters think that her books should be required reading for every math-anxious school girl! The message seems to be that physical beauty and quantitative literacy need’t be mutually exclusive.
Would you give away this irreverent guide about pre-algebra to your neighbor’s son?
From Boyfriend to Babysitting
Chapter 1: How to Make a Killing on eBay (Prime Numbers and Prime Factorization)
Chapter 2: Do You Still Have a Crush on Him? (Finding the Greatest Common Factor)
Chapter 7: Is Your Sister Trying to Cheat You Out of Your Fair Share? (Comparing Fractions)
Chapter 11: Why Calculators Would Make Terrible Boyfriends (Converting Fractions and Mixed Numbers to Decimals)
Chapter 12: How to Entertain Yourself while Babysitting a Devil Child (Converting Decimals to Fractions)
Math Doesn’t Sulk also comes with a math horoscope, math personality quizzes, and real-life testimonials. What else more can one expect from a math book? In fact, Danica herself exemplifies her own life from being a terrified middle-school math student to a confident actress, and more.
X-rated algebra with a dose of irreverence and humor
Girls get curves: Geometry takes shape
Learn some proofs with Danica as your personal tutor and coach!
Don’t judge a book by its irreverent title!
Personally, the style of writing of these pop math books is enough to arouse my interest, leave aside the math, which somewhat lacks rigor, as compared to the standard expected of Singapore math students at the same grades. For example, in Singapore, geometric proof and trigonometry are formally covered at grade 9 or 10. However, McKellar’s informal and conversational writing style could help us loosen our often-stiff mathematics writing, which has traditionally plagued most Singapore-published boring textbooks, as they go through the “rigorous” (or tedious?) process of MOE’s standards of quality and morality.
References
Ho, S. T., Khor, N. H. & Yan, K. C. (2013). Additional Maths 360. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Education.
McKellar, D. (2012). Girls get curves: Geometry takes shape. New York: Hudson Street Press.
McKellar, D. (2011). Hot X: Algebra exposed! New York: Plume.
McKellar, D. (2008). Kiss my math: Showing pre-algebra who’s boss. New York: Hudson Street Press.
McKelkar, D. (2007). Math doesn’t suck: How to survive middle school math without losing your mind or breaking a nail. New York: Plume.
For alignment with state and NCTM math standards, visit www.mathdoesntsuck.com/standards
© Yan Kow Cheong, April 20, 2013.