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Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Mathematics and the Real World

Mathematics and the Real World

Hardcover

General Mathematics

ISBN10: 1616140917
ISBN13: 9781616140915
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: Sep 2 2014
Pages: 432
Weight: 1.35
Height: 1.50 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
In this accessible and illuminating study of how the science of mathematics developed, a veteran math researcher and educator looks at the ways in which our evolutionary makeup is both a help and a hindrance to the study of math.Artstein chronicles the discovery of important mathematical connections between mathematics and the real world from ancient times to the present. The author then describes some of the contemporary applications of mathematics-in probability theory, in the study of human behavior, and in combination with computers, which give mathematics unprecedented power.The author concludes with an insightful discussion of why mathematics, for most people, is so frustrating. He argues that the rigorous logical structure of math goes against the grain of our predisposed ways of thinking as shaped by evolution, presumably because the talent needed to cope with logical mathematics gave the human race as a whole no evolutionary advantage. With this in mind, he offers ways to overcome these innate impediments in the teaching of math.

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General Mathematics