Derrick Niederman

Ho letto decine di libri di quizzini matematici (e ne ho scritto anche qualcuno...). Ciascuno di essi ha uno stile diverso, sia per la scelta dei problemi che per la loro esposizione e per come si passa alle soluzioni. Non mi era ancora capitato di vedere pero l'approccio usato da Niederman. In pratica i problemi - non ce ne sono tantissimi, anche se qualcuno mi era comunque nuovo - sono solo la ciliegina sulla torta di un discorso molto più generale, che parla dei problemi matematici come un modo di vedere il mondo. E il bello è che il discorso fila anche senza cercare di risolvere i problemi! In pratica è possibile divertirsi nella lettura senza impazzire nel risolvere questi problemi. Dite niente...… (plus d'informations)

In the tradition of Innumeracy and the various Freakonomics books. The authors are a PhD mathematician (Niederman) and a PhD in Public Policy {Boyum). The book is interesting to browse, but we’ve heard all this stuff before – the perils of small sample size, the lack of understanding of the Pareto distribution, how to mislead with percentages, regression to the mean, and so on. I did pick up a very useful trick from the chapter on the value of approximations and the perils of using a calculator, though: if you look up converting Celsius to Fahrenheit, the exact conversion is multiply by 9/5 and add 32. You probably can’t do that readily in your head. Niederman and Boyum point out the approximation – double and add 30 – is doable mentally and will never be off by more than a few degrees. (If you’re going the other way, subtract 30 and divide by 2).

The authors use examples from contemporary politics, which not only illustrate the woeful innumeracy of many commentators but also the maxim that you should never assume malevolence when incompetence is a valid explanation – sort of a variant on Occam’s Razor. One interesting point is the authors actually concur with the Washington Post columnist who criticized requiring all high school students to take algebra; they propose “practical math” type courses instead. Possibly not a bad idea; the kind of numerical reasoning they give examples of would benefit most people more than algebra. Alas, I suspect this sort of thing would somehow degenerate into a Common Core-type math fiasco.

Worth a browse; a quick read and, perhaps surprisingly no math beyond the basics.… (plus d'informations)

Derrick Niederman takes the reader on a journey through the numerals 1 through 200 to explore the intricate delights of the world of mathematics. His path goes through pure number theory, but takes sharp turns into the worlds of music, sports, television, movies, architecture, and even wallpaper design. He starts off with easy types of numbers (even, odd, prime, etc.) but then details the most extreme types--Frobenius numbers, Smith numbers, Lychrel numbers, Friedman numbers, and even vampire numbers (sadly, there are also Cullen numbers). It gets a little tedious for upper numbers in the book, and Niederman has to stretch to incorporate them all, but, all in all, it was an easy read.

http://lifelongdewey.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/510-number-freak-by-derrick-nieder...… (plus d'informations)