The Joy of x
Ratings17
Average rating4.1
Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, insight, and brilliant illustrations.
Whether he is illuminating how often you should flip your mattress to get the maximum lifespan from it, explaining just how Google searches the internet, or determining how many people you should date before settling down, Strogatz shows how math connects to every aspect of life. Discussing pop culture, medicine, law, philosophy, art, and business, Strogatz is the math teacher you wish you’d had. Whether you aced integral calculus or aren’t sure what an integer is, you’ll find profound wisdom and persistent delight in The Joy of x.
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Mathematical education is in dire straits - this is a fact. But this book is not something I'd recommend for people who have always struggled to get into Math or for people who were good at Math but didn't necessarily like it.
The very issue with trying to please everyone is you end up pleasing no one. This book overextends itself in trying to court the seasoned amateur and the professional, not to mention trying to help people who loathe the field. Spoon-feeding the latter the absolute basics (what is multiplication, what is a circle, etc.) would hardly work as the basics are also the most tedious part of Math.
Paul Lockhart puts it aptly when he suggests that Math education needs to be fixed down-to-top - giving students time to come up with proofs by themselves and not simply giving them the absolute basics through flowery details. This is my opinion, of course, and if more people are interested in Maths because of this, then it's all the better - this is not how I would recommend starting your journey.
This is a breeze, so you could quickly finish this throughout a single afternoon. I'd recommend this if you have free time to whittle away, doubly if you're even slightly interested in the field.
I'm an elementary school math teacher, and I picked this up hoping it would give me some good teaching ideas. It's definitely aimed at a higher level than my kiddos, but it's easy to read and made me feel like I could understand higher order math. That's not the same as I understand it, but Strogatz does a good job of simplifying big ideas for laypeople. It's funny, fast, and a good primer/reminder for those of us not using calculus in our daily life.
A concise journey through the basic principles of mathematics.
I enjoyed this book. Strogatz can vividly explain abstract mathematical principles.
In the past, I had to solve integrals at a reasonable level without really knowing what I was doing.
A math teacher lik Strogatz would have made all the difference. Strogatz shows the principles behind Algebra and Calculus in a very understandable way without explaining how to do it.
I read it with pleasure.
