mathematics
If your children have trouble with integers, they’re not alone!
A recent instant scratch lottery game had to be withdrawn in Britain because too many people couldn’t figure it out. Winning this winter-themed game depended on scratching a card to reveal temperatures lower than a given reference temperature. From Good Math, Bad Math : Pathetic Innumeracy – this time from Great Britain: So many people [...]
Disturbing things seen in schools – Part 1
I’ve called this “Part 1″ because my experience tells me there will be more. A few students have checked in with me about how their school years have started. It’s stories like these that make me grateful that I no longer have a vested interest in how teachers are teaching (or not teaching, as the [...]
Electoral Reform – fun with numbers!
Everyone knows there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Numbers can be used to prove or disprove anything. Similarly, the same election votes can produce wildly different outcomes depending on the voting system in place. I’ve always been interested in the mathematics of voting, perhaps even more so than in the election results themselves. A [...]