Off we go! Why did we decide to start this blog? Because we love math! There are a lot of great problems, models, facts etc. that upon discovery we share with each other, or sometimes friends and family, but then forget or lose forever. Similarly, we lose track of fun/interesting websites, books, magazine articles, so that when we want to refer to them again, we cannot find the link or bookmark. One might ask why not to use Evernote, Diigo, or other such social bookmarking services? Mainly because we want to share and discuss our findings with others, test our ways of presenting stuff, and get new "gems" from our potential readers :-) In short, we would like to have some fun with math.
Not last on our list of priorities is to be able to share our love of math with our kids and grandchildren. By gathering problems of various levels now, we can share them with the kids when they become age appropriate. Of course we are also interested in cool ideas that we can already present to them, so we are always on the lookout for fun facts that can be shared with 3-4 year olds.
My experience with mathematics (which I use professionally every day), both learning it and teaching it, has agreed with the view expressed by V. Arnol'd in his article "On teaching mathematics." Namely, he asserts that mathematics is part of physics, hence, like physics, is an experimental science. It is that part of physics, says Arno'd, where "experiments are cheap." (I wish I'd learned this sooner, before defending my Ph.D. in mathematics!)
ReplyDeleteSo, when I put together math problems for my son and his peers (most of these I then post on my Facebook page dedicated to mathematical education), I try to make it so that candidate answers can be tested experimentally, perhaps even physically. Here is an example:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=524575090901969&set=a.524574737568671.142169.180553125304169&type=1&theater
I also protest against memorizing formulas (like the commutativity of addition) without explaining the physics behind them. Here is a manifesto of my protest:)
http://books.google.com/books?id=7VvPrr0ACfAC&pg=PR2&dq=sadovsky+math&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_2tUUb_ADaPo2AWEt4HQDw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ
Interestingly enough, the first idea of this blog came to me after I read the article you mentioned above. Then I read more by V. Arnold and liked his ideas very much. I am a believer in math as a part of nature, a common language for all sciences. I visited your facebook page and like your problems and other content there. I really appreciate your comments and thoughts. I hope you will continue to do this. If you ever decide that you want to add some of your problems and ideas in a form of a separate post(s) on this blog, you are welcome to do it.
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