A writer's Random ramblings
Women plus math equals what? For most of us, the very people teaching the subject in our formative years. Some may know stories such as Hidden Figures, about women who applied math to their work. But if we never understood the subject, what can we do?
Many ignore math after school or use it as a tool as in cooking. Enter Eugenia Cheng, the Scientist I'm Residence at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a PhD in math, making her perfect to explain the subject for the rest of us. In How to Bake , Professor Cheng uses examples from the kitchen, the arts, and pop culture to explain mathematical concepts for those who learn by relating one idea to another. Each chapter begins with a recipe, which she uses to jump off into the math of how the cookery happens. From there, math facts take shape in many ways. The book begins with basic number theory, and winds its way through algebra, geometry, and the basics of higher math. It goes into how logic applies to math and the supposedly advanced concept of category theory to tie things together. However, How to Bake π covers this in such a way that the category theory becomes the basic logic of math. Using the idea in this way allows artists, cooks, and other non-theoretical math people to grasp the other mathematical concepts. For this reason, the book needs to be added to curricula from pre=algebra classes to college math. After reading this work, I find myself convinced that many school systems, at least in Western society, teach math inside out, which confuses learners at any age. As Professor Cheng notes several times throughout the book, students need to be encouraged to ask not only how math works, but why it does. The theories and equations found in properly taught math help humanity solve problems in a beyond the classroom. After all, the “why” questions help people relate concepts to reality. Often, this helps the ideas stick and become applicable for other life situations, such as engineering a building, writing a symphony, or baking a cake. When humans apply lessons to life, we require less time to internalize them and make sense of the world. Then, we can learn more and become more informed so we can in turn inform others, as parents and teachers do for children. After enough cycles repeating this loop, the world functions more smoothly regardless of whether humans see themselves as “woman,” “man,” or any sort of other descriptive term. Thus, the book How to Bake π, by Eugenia Cheng, gives humanity a great way to synthesize math. The book makes the often-elusive subject apply to everyone. Cooks, artists, and even those who use math in their work, can learn new techniques and applications in this book. Students, parents, and teaches alike can find new hints for learning math despite the density of information the tome contains. I highly recommend this to anyone confused by math and its concepts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorStuff about me: Archives
June 2020
Categories |