A textbook for those who don’t think they like Math

November 8th, 2007 | by Sol |

Mathematics: A Human Endeavor, by Harold Jacobs, Mathematics: A Human Endeavoris a great book high school students will enjoy using to explore a number of concepts. Its subtitle is quite apt: “A Textbook for Those Who Think They Don’t Like the Subject.” I have the 1970 edition which is much less expensive than the one linked to here. A variety of editions are available but I have no idea how newer ones are different from the one I have.

The book has 10 chapters:

  1. The Mathematical Way of Thinking
  2. Number Sequences
  3. Functions and their Graphs
  4. Large Numbers and Logarithms
  5. Regular Polygons
  6. Mathematical Curves
  7. Some Methods of Counting
  8. The Mathematics of Chance
  9. An Introduction to Statistics
  10. Some Topics in Topology

Each chapter contains a number of lessons, each of which is rich with interesting exploration problems. As an example, chapter 1 has 6 lessons with delightful investigations:

  1. The mathematics behind the path of a billiard ball on a frictionless table. Students are guided to use graph paper to create “tables” of different dimensions and to track the ball’s path on each of these. Stimulating questions lead the student to think about fractions, and relative primeness of numbers.
  2. Optical illusions.
  3. A nice area paradox based on the Fibonacci sequence, in which a rectangle is dissected in such a way that when the pieces are reassembled into a square the square appears to have a smaller area than the rectangle.
  4. Dissection and coloring explorations with 3-dimensional figures.
  5. Number tricks and the algebra behind them.

Other chapters are equally rich with interesting guided explorations. The book also contains many drawings, illustrations, and cartoons.

I highly recommend Mathematics: A Human Endeavor to all students and adults alike who want to explore a number of interesting and not too difficult problems with a very enthusiastic guide who makes the exploration fun. All it takes is a little curiosity and this book can take you a long way.

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  1. 3 Responses to “A textbook for those who don’t think they like Math”

  2. By IB a Math Teacher on Nov 9, 2007 | Reply

    That book was used at the college I attended for the not-so-mathematically-inclined!

  3. By Sol on Nov 9, 2007 | Reply

    Well, judging from your blog that’s not the case for you. You seem quite mathematically inclined!

  4. By Jonathan on Nov 9, 2007 | Reply

    I used his algebra as a supplement to something along the way. I remember the BC comics. Maybe a teacher made xeroxes?

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