Review: Humble Pi: The role of mathematics
I really wanted to like this book but its pathetic. Its surprising that the author holds a Ph.D could subject himself to such ridicule and that gives us an ample reason why Mathematics need to be studied.
The author totally misses the point why Mathematics is important. You cannot appreciate if you cannot quantify things and math gives you an ability to quantify things. It gives you a handle to compare things and make sense of things based on your previous experiences. Smith hates math word problems and is not convinced that solving them has any real value and yet the problems he formulate in context of social science would need facility with word problems. Math is about beauty. Its about ability to make sense of things. Training in Math is much different than training in other subjects because instead of memorizing and getting accquainted with a bunch of facts Math challenges you to test your understanding. Math is the sole subject which makes you think and challenge your intution.
Smith makes a real asnine assumption that (since it was written in mid 1990s) that we Americans as a country are doing ok and since most of the people cannot solve the 350 pt problem it means Math knowledge is not required. Now I am reviewing this book in 2009 and so I definitely have solid evidence by my side that decades of neglecting math education has a dibilitating effect on the health of economy.
The author totally misses the point why Mathematics is important. You cannot appreciate if you cannot quantify things and math gives you an ability to quantify things. It gives you a handle to compare things and make sense of things based on your previous experiences. Smith hates math word problems and is not convinced that solving them has any real value and yet the problems he formulate in context of social science would need facility with word problems. Math is about beauty. Its about ability to make sense of things. Training in Math is much different than training in other subjects because instead of memorizing and getting accquainted with a bunch of facts Math challenges you to test your understanding. Math is the sole subject which makes you think and challenge your intution.
Smith makes a real asnine assumption that (since it was written in mid 1990s) that we Americans as a country are doing ok and since most of the people cannot solve the 350 pt problem it means Math knowledge is not required. Now I am reviewing this book in 2009 and so I definitely have solid evidence by my side that decades of neglecting math education has a dibilitating effect on the health of economy.
posted by Sumant at 11:52 AM
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