Math with Bad Drawings
Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality
Published on 11. October 2018
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-0-316-50903-9 (ISBN)
Description
In MATH WITH BAD DRAWINGS, Ben Orlin answers math's three big questions: Why do I need to learn this? When am I ever going to use it? Why is it so hard? The answers come in various forms-cartoons, drawings, jokes, and the stories and insights of an empathetic teacher who believes that math should belong to everyone.
Eschewing the tired old curriculum that begins in the wading pool of addition and subtraction and progresses to the shark infested waters of calculus (AKA the Great Weed Out Course), Orlin instead shows us how to think like a mathematician by teaching us a new game of Tic-Tac-Toe, how to understand an economic crisis by rolling a pair of dice, and the mathematical reason why you should never buy a second lottery ticket.
Every example in the book is illustrated with his trademark "bad drawings," which convey both his humor and his message with perfect pitch and clarity. Organized by unconventional but compelling topics such as "Statistics: The Fine Art of Honest Lying," "Design: The Geometry of Stuff That Works," and "Probability: The Mathematics of Maybe," MATH WITH BAD DRAWINGS is a perfect read for fans of illustrated popular science.
Eschewing the tired old curriculum that begins in the wading pool of addition and subtraction and progresses to the shark infested waters of calculus (AKA the Great Weed Out Course), Orlin instead shows us how to think like a mathematician by teaching us a new game of Tic-Tac-Toe, how to understand an economic crisis by rolling a pair of dice, and the mathematical reason why you should never buy a second lottery ticket.
Every example in the book is illustrated with his trademark "bad drawings," which convey both his humor and his message with perfect pitch and clarity. Organized by unconventional but compelling topics such as "Statistics: The Fine Art of Honest Lying," "Design: The Geometry of Stuff That Works," and "Probability: The Mathematics of Maybe," MATH WITH BAD DRAWINGS is a perfect read for fans of illustrated popular science.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
150 full-color cartoons
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 184 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
1136 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-316-50903-9 (9780316509039)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ben Orlin is the author of the blog Math With Bad Drawings. He also writes on a variety of topics related to math for The Atlantic, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Business Insider. He began his teaching career in Oakland, California in a charter high school populated by students from low-income, immigrant families, where test scores ranked as high as #4 among all high schools in the state of California. He taught at King Edward's School in Birmingham, England, and now lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
@benorlin
@benorlin