Newsworthy Math
A Discussion about Mathematics in Society
May, 2008
What’s the Biggest Number in the World?
They go on forever, of course, but one of the entertaining things about mathematics is its habit of defining and naming fabulously large numbers. This can also be useful. The Romans could barely write down the number of citizens in their empire. These days Roman numerals couldn’t write down the number of people on the [...]
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Who Needs Algebra?
One of the biggest questions about mathematical education has to be: Why bother? Anyone teaching math gets lots of practice answering that. It’s a good question. There are two types of justification, the aesthetic and the practical. The aesthetic case is actually the easy one. Math is one of the least obvious, most complex, profound [...]
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