"Alex's Adventures in Numberland" – what an exciting book!
I’ve just seen a guy called Alex Bellos on BBC Breakfast talking about his new book: “Alex’s Adventures in Numberland“.
And what a marvelous book it looks. It’s all about the beauty of maths and numbers and I’m chomping at the bit to read it after Alex talked with such passion about numbers, the Golden Ratio (it’s 1.61803399 – google it; it’s mind blowing), the fibonacci sequence, numerate Japanese monkeys..his demonstration of a multiplication sum using a diagram to get the answer was fantastic – I just have to learn this and teach it to my kids.
What really resonated with me was his point about the way in which Maths is taught in schools is uninspiring and puts a huge amount of us off the subject. I know first hand because of the work I had to put in following being relegated to CSE class when I was 13 by a moronic teacher who had written me off mathematically. I went on to GCE success at O and AS Level success and found a lot of inspiring mathematics in my Economics degree.
Maths is really the stuff of life. It holds the key, in my opinion, to the structure of the universe, the Earth and ultimately us. Anything, like Alex’s book, that brings it to life like this should be applauded. I’m off to buy my copy now 🙂
May 14, 2010
I thoroughly agree that Maths taught the way it is in schools is uninspiring, uninteresting and never described properly as to how often it is used and applied in everyday life. I just wish that more people understood how important maths is to living today
May 14, 2010
Totally agree. I remember being reprimanded, aged 6, for exploring patterns with counters in a maths class instead of the set work.
It’s taught all wrong …. I love numbers … my ambition is to ‘retire’ early and do voluntary maths teaching at primary school with all the passion it deserves.
Mathematics and numbers are so critical to absolutely everything …. must buy this book.