Randall Munroe, creator of the webcomic xkcd, from a TED talk that’s making the rounds:
What I love is that math lets you take some things you know and just by moving symbols around on a piece of paper find out something you didn’t know that’s very surprising. I have a lot of stupid questions and I love that math gives the power to answer them sometimes.
If you want to understand the Common Core’s fourth math practice standard, “Model with Mathematics,” you could do a lot worse than studying the mental feats Munroe performs in every single post of his What If? blog.
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I think the bit immediately prior is worth quoting as well, even if it’s a bit harsher:
And I love calculating these kinds of things, and it’s not that I love doing the math. I do a lot of math, but I don’t really like math for its own sake.
Like on Mythbusters, Monroe is rarely content to stop with answering the question as stated: he generally keeps going bigger, faster, taller, or hotter until something explodes.
6 Comments
Jason Dyer
May 19, 2014 - 12:33 pm -I think the bit immediately prior is worth quoting as well, even if it’s a bit harsher:
And I love calculating these kinds of things, and it’s not that I love doing the math. I do a lot of math, but I don’t really like math for its own sake.
Asa
May 19, 2014 - 3:45 pm -That’s awesome. His thought process is just great.
timfc
May 19, 2014 - 5:18 pm -AAAAAH, my two favorite things on the internet are happening in the same place. Now XKCD needs to reference dy/dan and the cycle will be complete.
Jim Hays
May 20, 2014 - 9:11 am -Monroe’s “What if” series does a excellent job of building ‘sequels’. Like on Mythbusters, Monroe is rarely content to stop with answering the question as stated: he generally keeps going bigger, faster, taller, or hotter until something explodes. By the time you see how the pattern grows, he’s piqued your curiosity and hooked you in for the ride.
Brandon Dorman
May 20, 2014 - 9:20 am -I agree with timfc. I’ve used xkcd comics before with kids – the “My normal approach is useless” one with the math symbols that can’t find love, the one where it shows pi and then in the digits is “help I’m trapped in an alternate universe” etc. Love it. Dan I’ll see you Friday in Fresno!
Dan Meyer
May 20, 2014 - 2:51 pm -Jim:
Ha!