Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Contrived versus genuine mathematical problems
Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: April 15, 2011
It might come as a surprise to some people, but kids are not stupid. So what’s a little kid to make of the following question: “Bobby has a dog with 8 spots. Jennifer has a dog with 3 fewer spots than Bobby’s dog. How many spots does Jennifer’s dog have?” What’s a kid to think? […]
Tasting wine: a coin toss?
Posted by: Gary Ernest Davis on: April 14, 2011
A valuable feature of quantitative reasoning – also known as numeracy, or quantitative literacy – is its ability to act as a BS detector. John Allen Paulos (@JohnAllenPaulos) makes this clear in his book “A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper“, though expressed in a more gentlemanly way as saying mathematics can clarify many situations. This morning […]
