give this one a try!
Archive for July, 2006
This week there has been a very interesting discussion on the math list at google. Basically one of the engineers was asking about how to encourage mathematical abilities on a children. I can’t post the whole thread, but he has made a nice summary of some of the books and resources that other engineers mentioned in his blog:
Recommendations for Math Prodigies
Most of these are very recommended if you like Maths and/or you happen to have children.
And anyway, now that I think about it, some of these are even MORE recommended if you DON’T like maths. Why? Because they show exactly why Maths are useful. If you read books like “The number devil” you normally can’t help feeling a bit curious about Maths. Books like Polya’s “How to think” show you how to even get better. Plus, other books like “Innumeracy”, by John Allen Paulos, or “Freakonomics”, by Lewitt, which basically have been a huge success, are just about showing the application of basic statistics and economic theory mathematics to our everyday’s world… and how some people (from politicians to sales representatives) misuse these…
I think Maths are fun if you actually know what you can do with them… what do you think?
