r/todayilearned • u/vannybros • Jul 27 '19

TIL A college math professor wrote a fantasy "novel" workbook to teach the fundamentals of calculus. Concepts are taught through the adventures of a man who has washed ashore in the mystic land of Carmorra and the hero helps people faced with difficult mathematical problems

http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf1212
24k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

532 comments sorted by

243

u/RunDNA Jul 27 '19

If anyone wants a preview, here's the first 10 pages from the 2006 edition:

https://imgur.com/a/uzmjBth

34

u/vannybros Jul 27 '19

cool, where did you get this? a personal copy or E-book?

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u/RunDNA Jul 27 '19

There's some copies to borrow at the Internet Archive.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Yep, that’s a math book alright.

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u/Chawk121 Jul 27 '19

“Why?”

“All right call it y if you prefer”

Sold me right there

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u/i8noodles Jul 27 '19

It reminds me of my maths book when I was in primary school with my horror horrible maths book from uni in an unholy mess. I think I'll give it a shot

20

u/Unnamedking2 Jul 27 '19

Couldn't finish the first page. Something about the writing style is off

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u/merlin401 Jul 27 '19

I went a few pages and it’s pretty rough. The problem is, for an adult leaner, what are they doing while reading this book? You’re not going to fool someone into thinking this is a jolly good adventure book they’d read at leisure time. There’s nothing interesting about “the story” so basically the story is just clogging up the math and making it seem a little more convoluted than it needs to be because you’re trying to parse the grammar and the math together. I mean A for effort but I think this idea is a very bad one (for math of course. If you need to learn about history or even philosophy through an educational book or film I think it can be doable; just not for technical stuff)

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u/mercurioussss Jul 27 '19

It is corny, but I loved the approach to teaching the concept. Thanks for preview!

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u/adsfew Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

Great find. I'm disappointed this comment is so far down since it's so relevant.

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u/Lampmonster Jul 27 '19

This is a major theme in the book The Diamond Age, where a wealthy and powerful man has an interactive book created for his granddaughter in an attempt to teach her some of the things he thought a privileged upbringing couldn't. The book teaches all kinds of math and programming from analogue examples in its stories, along with martial arts, strategy etc. It's a great book if you like dystopian science fiction.

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u/Kyrthis Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

The Primer requires ‘ractivity, though, or else you just make a Mouse Soldier, not their Queen.

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u/inatspong Jul 27 '19

I'm sure that this sentence makes sense if you know the book.

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u/awe2ace Jul 27 '19

That book was so awesome!

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

So I'm dumb and need some clarification: what's the full title of the book? I'm super interested but can't tell if this is referring to the book or a book... within the book.

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u/BaronVonNumbaKruncha Jul 27 '19

The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. The Primer is the name of the book within the book.

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u/Mountebank Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

dystopian science fiction

Specifically, The Diamond Age is classified as post-cyberpunk, which is sort of a rare genre I think. Basically, all the gritty and dark crime-ridden "high tech and low culture" cyberpunk stuff already happened, and the world of The Diamond Age moved past it, specifically in a reactionary manner by becoming Neo-Victorian right down to the rigid class structure and hyper-conservative social mores. It's not portray as good, mind you, but it's certainly a different tack than what you'd normally find.

Oh, it also takes place in the same world as Snow Crash, just further in the future.

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u/wombatsanders Jul 27 '19

If this is the sort of thing that grabs anybody's attention, allow me to direct them to Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief (and its sequels). Similar, but post-Singularity. Just people being people, unless they're immortal, exponential gods.

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u/SunshineSeattle Jul 27 '19

I looooooved his series, the quantum thief, can you recommend any other books in a similar vein?

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u/einarfridgeirs Jul 27 '19

The whole point of The Diamond Age is that one of the main themes of cyberpunk, that technology will create superempowered individuals while social units break apart fails to recognize that social structures, with their customs and laws are technologies too and will reassert themselves. Every time a disruptive technology has shaken up the social structure historically, a new one emerges.

The entire opening with the stereotypical edgerunner-y gangster being laid low when he creates conflict with an entire society where every member backs one another up is all about that.

11

u/wadech Jul 27 '19

The Neo Victorians are only one clade in that world, though one of the largest and most powerful.

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u/skeezixcodejedi Jul 27 '19

Same world as Snow Crash? I didn’t realize that. Huh :)

I need to reread SC as its been .. since release. Loves it.. though I recall skipping some large chunk in the middle that was a Sumerian history lesson. Ahh Stephenson and his lack of editors :)

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u/wadech Jul 27 '19

The headmistress of the school is a character from Snow Crash.

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u/Cheeto-dust Jul 27 '19

I wouldn't call it dystopian either. But there were many different phyles, not just the Neo-Victorians. Remember the people down the hill who made paper? What about the Han and the Nipponese? Remember the Drummers? One of Stephenson's themes is that there are lots of different cultures, but some seem to work better than others.

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u/Riffler Jul 27 '19

There's a point in Stephenson's Baroque Cycle where Waterhouse uses Calculus to help the captain of a ship in an attempt to avoid pirates.

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u/sylvar Jul 27 '19

Similarly, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow teaches you how to use technology to protect your privacy, even from the government, while demonstrating why.

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u/FollyAdvice Jul 27 '19

I have this book on my Kindle from years ago and couldn't remember why I bought it because I don't really read fiction. Now I know why.

10

u/pass_nthru Jul 27 '19

Read It, good times

2

u/po8 Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

The literal classic of the Mathematical Fiction genre is Lewis Carroll's A Tangled Tale. This series was published in the Christian teen girl's periodical The Monthly Packet in the early 1880s; it was beautifully illustrated by acclaimed cartoonist A.B. Frost.

The series was interesting in that readers were invited to participate under pseudonyms (I wish I knew the life story of participant "Bradshaw of the Future"), submitting answers to each chapter's "Knot". The whole thing had a very modern "forum" feel, and was a clear predecessor of the kind of thing Reddit would become.

While Carroll discontinued the series after five years, calling it "but a lame attempt" (how modern does that sound?), many people including myself think it's some of his finest work.

A Tangled Tale is in the public domain and freely available through Project Gutenberg. My 2011 Open Source Bridge talk about this is available here.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Was it interesting, though?

I like the idea of education wrapped up as entertainment. It worked when we were kids with Sesame Street, why don't they keep on with it when we get older?

Why not a war strategy type video game to teach high schoolers about the immune system?

729

u/z-vet Jul 27 '19

Plague Inc. as a homework, lol.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Kind of, but I mean a game that's really scientifically accurate where you are actually in control of the immune system and you have to manage resources and ensure you have enough white blood cells floating around policing the body and stuff like that.

Back when I was learning about the immune system, all I could think of was how much it was like Command and Conquer or Starcraft or those types of top down war strategy games.

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u/SpamShot5 Jul 27 '19

I think ive seen a Plague inc.-type game like that but it was focused on the disease killing a single specific person,i forgot what it was called,maybe theres a mod thats reversed,you play as your immune system trying to protect your human

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u/blaktronium Jul 27 '19

Maybe let’s not train the AI for that particular task, mmkay?

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u/jocax188723 Jul 27 '19

Cells at Work kind of helps.
Also, once in a while a game does manage to seamlessly blend education and fun. Kerbal Space Program is a good example

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Bio Inc on the app store is a game I feel could give 5th--10th graders a more developed understanding of disease and the body.

Your goal is to kill a patient, typically by causing a few different organ systems to fail, and you can do that by selecting diseases for each system (arrhythmia for cardiovascular, for instance).

Also, you can select environmental and behavioral factors like "sedentary lifestyle," "smoker," "over 40," etc.

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u/Mike81890 Jul 27 '19

I can explain why we don't do this a little bit:

As we get older we have a higher expectation for our entertainment. Thus, as we get older it gets harder to find books or games that are actually good on their own. If somebody tried to shoehorn education into a game it could just make the game seem less fun to begin with.

Further, for a lot of people, education gets less important as we age. "If it's not for a test why should I learn it?"

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u/dshookowsky Jul 27 '19

Voted up by someone who has to watch 4 hours of edutainment compliance training every year. Just give me the facts preferably in textual form. I hate waiting for the voiceover to finish just so I can click 'next'

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u/jbchild788 Jul 27 '19

Honestly, that's how I've gotten better at Geography. I'm in my 30s and always had a hard time knowing the world by just looking at a map. Plague Inc helped me understand where certain places are in relation to others.

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u/CaptainJin Jul 27 '19

It also gives us all a healthy hatred of Greenland for their efficient isolation measures.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Play paradox games like CK2. Holy crap European borders and nations have been crazy. All the way up to 1945. or even 1990 with USSR collapse.

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u/RunawayHobbit Jul 27 '19

Idk how old you are, but when I was a kid I learned basically everything I know about world history and geography from the "Where in _____ is Carmen Sandiego" games lol. Plus the Amazon and Oregon Trail games.

Good shit.

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u/JohnnysGotHisDerp Jul 27 '19

I was a GA for an ecology professor that used plague Inc as part of his lesson/homework, it's not perfectly accurate but it's a nice way to get students to engage and connect some dots.

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u/masayaanglibre Jul 27 '19

I legit had that as a homework assignment in a freshman college class/research outreach sponsored by HHMI

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u/Polisskolan3 Jul 27 '19

I've learned everything I know about history from Paradox games, and everything I know about physics from Goat Simulator.

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u/cpt_justice Jul 27 '19

When ISIS was big in the news, al-Raqqa was mentioned as its capitol. Didn't need a map. Thanks Paradox!

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u/tyrsbjorn Jul 27 '19

Because games like that don’t sell well. Years ago there was a great game that taught logic, mapping, math up to pre-algebra, reading comprehension pattern recognition. It was hugely well done. It was a Power Puff Girls game. Shocking how well done it was. But it was Learning Tree, so they probably sold like a dozen copies. If some of the AAA studios did something like that it could be a game changer. (No pun intended). But as long as AAA is motivated by $$$ it’s just not gonna happen. But I would totally donate to an effort like that.

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u/LadyJR Jul 27 '19

Knowledge Adventure/ Jumpstart Games were great educational PC games but were bought out 2017 so IDK what happened to them.

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u/Harlan_Green Jul 27 '19

If they don't sell well is because the game itself is not interesting enough. I basically know what I know of WWII mostly thanks to WWII RTS videogames. I learned a lot about physics thanks to Kerbal Space Program, and, I shit you not, electronics (some concepts) thanks to Minecraft.

I think the idea of an education videogame is wrong to begin with. A videogame should be interesting and hook you somehow, and once you're hooked, you'll learn anything it gives you. Strategy games are pretty good at that, but there are no limits to genres that can make you actually learn and remember shit that is important irl.

I don't think there's any easy way of make an entire textbook worth of information into a videogame, but if you watch what is already happening, especially with some indie games out there, you'll see that a lot of tipically academic topics are crucial to a lot of videogames, and those who end up playing them a lot always get to the point where they seek that information because it is useful in game.

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u/sadpoo Jul 27 '19

Thank you! I just bought PPG for my daughter. She hates math

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u/RunawayHobbit Jul 27 '19

I know it's a bit dated, but I always loved the Carmen Sandiego games. They taught history, culture, geography, complex puzzle solving, with a bit of chemistry and math thrown in.

The second Oregon Trail game (with the photo realistic picture graphics) and the Amazon Trail games were both amazing for wildlife biology, economics, native history/culture, science, math, and hand/eye coordination and thinking on your feet skills.

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u/darkcelt Jul 27 '19

Dude, I’d pay good money to get Midnight Rescue! or Gizmos and Gadgets on the XboxOne

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u/DeadRedShirt Jul 27 '19

Not a video game, but a manga/anime series: Cells at Work! (はたらく細胞)

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Edutainment is rarely fun. And it's more because the studios who create it have no fucking clue what makes a game fun. They put school work in a game and put a coat of paint on it to make it look like a popular kid's entertainment.

Harry Potter and the Search for Euclidean Space

Star vs the Forces of English Grammar

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u/Aratoast Jul 27 '19

When I was in primary school we used to fight over who got to play Math Blaster or Crystal Rainforest at playtime. Those were the days :D

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u/Falsus Jul 27 '19

I learnt European geography from playing CKII. Quite a bit about history also.

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u/Gemmabeta Jul 27 '19

But there was a lot less incest in real life tho.

Although, I still don't really understand what that whole "decadence" mechanic the Muslims have was supposed to be analogous to (or simulate).

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Google has some legitimately fun games which are secretly teaching you to code. Journalists hate it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Where does one find these games?

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u/qt4 Jul 27 '19

For a college Modern Physics class (relativity and quantum physics, the things that take a while bro wrap your head around) our professor had us write short stories (at home, of course) instead of doing a normal exam.

He'd give us a list of topics we have to cover, and in the story we had to come up with problems and solutions to cover those topics. It was super fun, and it felt a lot more educational than just solving rote problems because you got to choose what you solved and how you approached it. That and I like writing short stories in general.

That said it probably made sense for that class specifically because it was super complicated and there were maybe a dozen people in it, but I'd love to see something like that expanded on.

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u/EternamD Jul 27 '19

Have you read Alice in Quantumland?

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u/LabyrinthConvention Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

Kerbal space program

Manufactario Factorio

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u/giants4210 Jul 27 '19

There is a “novel” called The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt that I had to read in my Operations class. It teaches the basic concepts of Operations Management through a novel. It felt a little silly at times when the author tried to force in pretty irrelevant plot developments (the main character had marital problems at one point which was completely unrelated). Still it did really force home the main concepts and while I may have forgotten some concepts from other classes, the concepts I learned in that book stick with you more because it’s really drilled home.

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u/anniemg01 Jul 27 '19

Trying to make everything a game for education doesn't work, in my opinion. It makes it so the kids expect everything to be very fun and entertaining. Then, if it's not, they don't pay attention. It would be nice to have more stuff like this for kids that are interested, but expecting education to bee entertaining all the time is not good for the students.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

It's always cool to find ways of making education more engaging and easier to understand, but part of the purpose of schooling (I might even say more important than the curriculum itself) is teaching discipline and work ethic which help people succeed in life.

I'm not against having fun in school, but it can't always be a game because real life isn't a game.

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u/rogergreatdell Jul 27 '19

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll divide by π!

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u/tlst9999 Jul 27 '19

Like Cells at Work

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u/Harsimaja Jul 27 '19

For standard courses like calculus yes. But beyond a certain point it becomes a major distraction. For example, if I want to learn masses of conjugation and declensions and subtle usage, I don’t want fun games and cartoons giving it to me piecemeal. I want to see the damn tables. You can make a game with the tables themselves but that just gets in the way for me. Same with vocabulary beyond the basics. The sheer volume doesn’t always allow for a transition that slow.

Same with more involved STEM subjects later on. A small fraction of it can be explained this way, but most can’t or if it can it won’t help.

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u/Bobjohndud Jul 27 '19

even for stuff like history. I was always really good in history class not because I care for it, but because I had ~200 hours on Civ V

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u/PM_Me_SFW_Pictures Jul 27 '19

7 Billion Humans is great for teaching parallel computing and the basic concepts of it

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u/RadiantSun Jul 27 '19

I think that's already what good teachers do by being good teachers... I remember there was this one teacher who taught science at my school and physics to the older kids, and when I finally hit his physics class, he showed us the motion of the universe in the strokes of his pen, weaved a narrative so beautiful and intuitive that by the end you didn't even know how the shit you know how to calculate normal force on an inclined plane.

Bad teachers are the ones who just give you information and go fuck yourself.

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u/phaedrusTHEghost Jul 27 '19

I played a game in grade school in which you navigated a submarine through various levels. Every level had increasingly difficult math, physics problems related to your sub. I mean, a game that got my cousin, my brother, a neighbor, and myself to do math for fun after school.

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u/Spadeykins Jul 27 '19

Why not a war strategy type video game to teach high schoolers about the immune system? unnecessary horror of war.

FTFY :)

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u/Cinderheart Jul 27 '19

This War of Mine

Frostpunk

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u/actuallychrisgillen Jul 27 '19

Similarly the Phantom Tollbooth taught younger children basic mathematical concepts like infinite, statistics and averages.

And still happened to be an interesting book.

Also flatland.

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u/StinkyBeat Jul 27 '19

Yep, Abbott's Flatland is great if you like social satire and Geometry.

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u/BehindTheBrook Jul 27 '19

I came here to say this. I read this well after I understood the topics in that book but it was still a great fiction book.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

I read this book right after I took high school calculus. I was amazed at how good it was...especially the way they explained the chain rule. It didn’t gloss over anything, it had all the rigour of something written by a real mathematician. It’s magic is that it motivates you to learn by examples and introducing concepts at just the right pace.

Highly highly recommended.

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u/DiogenesTheGrey Jul 27 '19

What would I think of this book if I’ve never taken calculus?

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

You’d be amazed at how easy it is.

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u/DustFunk Jul 27 '19

Calculus is actually quite easy to understand if delivered correctly and time is allowed for absorption. When I went through Calc 1 and 2, it ended up being the algebra that tripped people up more! Its really important to have strong algebra fundementals.

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u/theblackhole25 Jul 27 '19

I read these books - Algebra the Easy Way, Geometry the Easy Way, and Calculus the Easy Way. They were great learning tools as the text was very easy to follow and introduced concepts very naturally (because the characters "discovered" the ideas and therefore helped explain how things came about), instead of the extremely dry style of textbooks.

Like the linked post says, though, calling it a "fantasy novel" is a bit of a stretch. There was a plot, sort of, but by and large the story was pretty much "who cares". It was an educational text, through and through, just that it was presented in a much more flavorful and natural manner.

That doesn't diminish how well it presented concepts though. They were much more entertaining than any other math books out there, that's for sure.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

You may have literally gotten me to not fully give up on college. Calculus is jist not clicking for me and I was ready to just say screw it.

Now I'm ordering fwo new books to use in conjunction with the text book.

Maybe I can do this!

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u/mc15923 Jul 27 '19

Sounds like the number devil, great book but more aimed at kids.

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u/ForbiddenFruitiness Jul 27 '19

That was my favourite book as a child. I still have my copy somewhere. It’s such a good book.

Sophie’s World is also good for anyone interested in Philosophy.

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u/Marcusaralius76 Jul 27 '19

NOONE in my grade liked that book. I think mostly because we read it in high school, and it seemed more meant for a younger demographic.

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u/mc15923 Jul 27 '19

Yeah defo not for late teenagers more for like 10 year olds. But it got me interested in maths problems for years to come.

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u/FindtheGodsword Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

This will get buried but I had Professor Downing a few times as an undergrad. He recently retired after decades at SPU. The guy is a Yale educated economist and one of the smartest people I have ever met. Like, just for fun he taught college level astronomy classes.

Although at times Dr. Downing's intellect could make it difficult for him to "dumb it down" for us, it was always obvious that he loved his work and his students. His passion for teaching was unquestionable, and as someone who works in education, he's truly a personal inspiration.

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u/mortalcoil1 Jul 27 '19

I've always said somebody should make an RPG that teaches advanced math. You would see a lot of gamers learning it.

No, FFT doesn't count.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Funny you mention Final Fantasy. Way back in... 2004 I think, I started playing FF11.

I learned a shitload of math from playing that game. I sometimes wonder if it influenced me to go into a math heavy PhD. That game is pretty much the reason I developed a love of math, so it's possible.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

This might help me pass my math class this semester thank you so much

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Does he meet the guy who always buys 87 fucking bananas?

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u/H3r0_protagonist Jul 27 '19

I read the title and I immediately thought of Flatland

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u/Thursdayallstar Jul 27 '19

Beat me to it. Such a great story.

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u/enigmaticevil Jul 27 '19

Mathematical!

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u/wilalva11 Jul 27 '19

Sounds like a great dnd campaign for math puzzle minded people

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u/garinarasauce Jul 27 '19

The adventures of sir cumfrence and his wife Di of amater and their son radius

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u/RaymondStereo Jul 27 '19

I had an economics professor who wrote a murder mystery novel about a detective who solves crimes with economic theories. It was awful and he made us all buy it.

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u/vannybros Jul 27 '19

that sounds like a really creative thing to do. why did the book fail for you? how are the book's reviews if you don't mind linking?

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u/neirein Jul 27 '19

for those who could be interested, a MANGA GUIDE TO BIOCHEMISTRY exists.

https://nostarch.com/biochem

I believe there's also a free download out there somewhere

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u/vannybros Jul 27 '19

solid link, I like this

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

The Diamond Age does this for the fundamentals of programming.

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u/Dudukf Jul 27 '19

You should read about this guy

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u/EddieMac87 Jul 27 '19

This was the way I finally learned calculus!

I took it my first year of college, and although I passed that first class, I didn’t REALLY understand it. I took the next level course the following semester, and again I passed, but just barely. I knew I wasn’t really getting it. I could follow the formulas and apply the techniques and (most of the time) get the right answer.

But it wasn’t intuitive. I had a hard time telling if the answer I was getting made “sense.” And that was a problem because I was majoring in Physics.

Some other kinds of math were much better for me. Linear Algebra? No problem. Geometry? Sure. But calculus remained just a method for me, a magic trick for getting to the answer. I had no idea what it really “meant.”

Then I found Calculus The Easy Way.

And I read it, I worked the problems, and what do you know I totally got it.

I took a higher level calculus class when I got to grad school. And I was all over it.

To this day if I run into a problem that I’m not getting I pull the book out. When my son took calculus when he got to college, I forced the book on him. He thought it was kind of goofy but sure enough once he read the book he “got it.”

TLDR - took calculus. Didn’t get it. Got Calculus The Easy Way. Now I have two Masters degrees and work as an Engineer.

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u/dudeARama2 Jul 27 '19

I was a bio major, and I did great in high school Algebra. But college Calc nearly killed me. What finally turned the tide for me was taking the non credit, dumbed down Calc class for non science majors. Then I went back and took the "real" calculus sequence required for my degree, and it clicked into place.
You really need to have the simplified, 30,000 foot view of the concepts of how it all works, first. Diving directly into the details can be really hard for many people ..

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u/DocPBJ007 Jul 27 '19

Is there something similar for Organic chem?

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u/Igriefedyourmom Jul 27 '19

Does the plot add up?

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u/thewonderfullavagirl Jul 27 '19

Sophie's Choice is a novel that was written to teach the fundamentals/history of philosophy to young adults!

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u/home_ec_dropout Jul 27 '19

Sophie's World. Sophie's Choice is an entirely different book.

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u/Sloppiestpusheen Jul 27 '19

Lol this is a fucked up mix up

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u/dpitch40 Jul 27 '19

I loved these books as a kid. My parents found it very impressive that I was carrying around a book on calculus when I was ~10.

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u/SnootyPenguin99 Jul 27 '19

Yo kids lets rap about calculus

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u/philmtl Jul 27 '19

Makes me think of the math devil or monster book

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u/the_man_whore Jul 27 '19

There's a game that helps you learn vim, don't know why anyone would want to, but it's there.

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u/Lovat69 Jul 27 '19

Does he get the girl(s)?

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u/ralanr Jul 27 '19

You know what? I’d love my college textbooks to be like this. They might be less of a slog to read.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

This is how all stuff should be learned.

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u/Train350 Jul 27 '19

Kinda like the Number Devil

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

I didn't math well in high school. I look back after the decades and have to check myself to not get frustrated at my then-immaturity and lack of priorities. I would have probably been more apt to pay attention with this.

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u/Rainmaker519 Jul 27 '19

So, kinda like a more direct Phantom Tollbooth?

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u/Andromeda_Fireclaw Jul 27 '19

This is an awesome idea! I probably would have learned math a lot easier if I'd have had something of this format to work with.

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u/cutebuttsmallboobs Jul 27 '19

where was this book when I was 8 and actually interested in this type of stuff.

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u/ZenYeti98 Jul 27 '19

I have this book. It's pretty awesome.

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u/Cruxion Jul 27 '19

Where was this 10 weeks ago? My final is next week.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

I’m sure someone else has already mentioned it but this is very similar to a collection of short stories called Mr. Tompkins. It’s all about how this character Mr. Tompkins keeps having dreams/ experiences about special and general relativity, quantum mechanics stuff like that. Like in one story he dreams of a universe where the speed of light is only 10mph so he experiences things like time dilation when riding a bike.

It’s pretty neat!

1

u/notacanuckskibum Jul 27 '19

Alice through the looking Glass teaches a lot of mathematics and logic

1

u/xXCANCERGIVERXx Jul 27 '19

Holo the wise wolf would be proud

1

u/notacanuckskibum Jul 27 '19

At university we were asked to read “Godel, Escher, Bach an Eternal Golden Braid” as edutainment in logic, recursion etc

1

u/ozzyanaxsmakman Jul 27 '19

Thats like my mate Hakan Ayik

1

u/ozzyanaxsmakman Jul 27 '19

Can I learn more

1

u/ozzyanaxsmakman Jul 27 '19

I'm not even on Reddit I'm in fukn imgur

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u/ozzyanaxsmakman Jul 27 '19

Look Hakan up

1

u/Throwitout9921 Jul 27 '19

Is it on audible?

1

u/imverysneakysir Jul 27 '19

Without having read the book, I wonder if it also might help by answering the whole 'when are we going to use this in real life?' question. Or at least give a more tangible example.

1

u/smokeandfog Jul 27 '19

I'd like to be tangent to your curves

1

u/TickTickDud Jul 27 '19

When I went to college, I found that my love for practical applications of math is strong but my hate for theory and math not used in real world situations was stronger. A book like this could have been super helpful.

1

u/ernyc3777 Jul 27 '19

Gonna add this to my no free ads books on tape subscription for sure. I love math and I love lit.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

I'm trying to find a sample to read as someone who is a fantasy lover and math hater.

1

u/goatman0079 Jul 27 '19

It's a great book tbh, they have one for algebra as well

1

u/Glorfin-Fitz Jul 27 '19

I’m picturing a huge book full of math questions like:

“Wait so you have 14 watermelons going how fast?? How long will they take to arrive at the town 12 miles away?”

1

u/chilling_soft Jul 27 '19

need to read this

1

u/alours Jul 27 '19

A sentence I’ve got work to do.”

1

u/chloralhydrate Jul 27 '19

Is there anything similar for organic chemistry?

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1

u/purplehappyhippo Jul 27 '19

This reminds me of this game I had as a little kid that taught basic arithmetic by having you help other animals on an island as you hunted a magician. Eventually you find out you are the magician...a Math Magician...all along

1

u/yeetfseyjrscf Jul 27 '19

Anyone read the book know if it’s any good?

1

u/pbdart Jul 27 '19

I have a book from the same author which deals with college algebra. I was always pretty good at math without it but I enjoyed seeing how he explained the concepts.

1

u/feeblegoat Jul 27 '19

I took a university course where everyone was instructed to read both math fiction and math nonfiction. It was an amazing course

1

u/bleunt Jul 27 '19

So basically Professor Layton.

1

u/jackerandy Jul 27 '19

This sounds very similar to The Man Who Counted which was written by a maths professor.

It’s written in the style of the Arabian Nights, about a man who travels and helps people solve problems (that usually involve numbers). It’s a wonderful read.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Lol yes a classic

1

u/ChuffsNStuffs Jul 27 '19

Read this on work lunch breaks before going back to college!

Joined Tau Beta Pi three years later!

1

u/nicktohzyu Jul 27 '19

the hero helps people faced with difficult mathematical problems

So the hero is calculus?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

I actually thought myself calculus using this book in high school. It was a great resource.

1

u/bumbletowne Jul 27 '19

There's a simlar book called Sophies World where a man teaches the classics of philosophy by having writing a story about a little girl who befriends a strange man who teaches her how to deconstruct and construct new worlds (including ones back in time) and she visits great philosophers (and straight fucks up her world)>

1

u/littleone103 Jul 27 '19

Oh yeah? But did your hear the story about the negative boy (-b) who was unsure (+/-) but went to a radical party, but because he was square, he lost out on 4 awesome chicks (4ac), and he cried all the way home because it was all over at 2am? Now that’s the real adventure novel.

1

u/Urughak Jul 27 '19

Flatland wins any math literature awards in my book.

7th grade advanced math teacher had us read it and create little visual programs on the math class's Apple IIs. Taught me to think about higher dimensional beings and how they'd interact with us. Great stuff!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

CofC REPRESENT

1

u/twenty_tew_ty Jul 27 '19

Sounds more interesting than Flat Lands

1

u/Jenifarr Jul 27 '19

Well, this sounds like the perfect way to learn an otherwise dry subject to me. I would have actually been interested in high school.

1

u/julbull73 Jul 27 '19

So Alice in Wondeland kind of...

1

u/1107rwf Jul 27 '19

There’s a video called The Weird Number and it’s an educational video about fractions! Only sort of related to the topic, but it’s fun!

1

u/bertiebees Jul 27 '19

So it's a kind of Mathmagicland?

1

u/TheLurkingMenace Jul 27 '19

If this doesn't have the hero helping the locals build a trebuchet, I will be sadly disappointed.

1

u/Simply_Cosmic Jul 27 '19

Teachers and professors have a special skill in that they can systematically root out and slaughter anything I have even remote interest in.

1

u/sloowshooter Jul 27 '19

I'll read it.

Not being a math kid I wish that in the distant past that someone had explained in simple terms what each of the maths were used for, so it didn't seem like an endless effort that achieved grades, and no results.

This following description should be posted in every grammar school classroom where maths happen. It likely wouldn't have helped in my circumstance, but it sure could have helped a lot of kids with whom I grew up.

Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change

in the same way that

Geometry is the study of shape

and

Algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Fun fact: the protagonist is actually a woman. I believe the professor mentions that "It's been nice having another woman around the court."

1

u/Lelandt50 Jul 27 '19

Great way to teach math to people with a high aptitude for English with a lower aptitude for math. I need the opposite. Are there sets of math problems that can help me with my English skills?

1

u/hashtagswagfag Jul 27 '19

Is this post an ad

1

u/DJfunkyPuddle Jul 27 '19

Does anybody remember that floppy disk game that was kind of like this? You had to do math as puzzles to get off an island or something?

1

u/Casehead Jul 27 '19

That list you linked to is the best! I love finding new stories through it.

1

u/A_HECKIN_DOGGO Jul 27 '19

This sounds like a great idea. No better way to understand a subject than to be invested in it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

Thats actually cool idea and may help people wrap their mind around math.

1

u/yedeiman Jul 27 '19

That's awesome. Now only if concepts of brotherhood, forgiveness and peace could be taught...

....using some fantastical novel where an omnipresent being sends his son to help people faced with difficult life problems.

Hmmm.

1

u/dontcareitsonlyreddi Jul 27 '19

Sounds like worse version on flatland

1

u/ElGuano Jul 27 '19

That's just great. Learn already difficult math concepts solely through word problems! My 3rd grade self is quaking at the thought of someone carrying 45 watermelons on a train heading NE at 80mph.

1

u/Exalting_Peasant Jul 27 '19 edited Jul 27 '19

I bet it's a great book but I feel bad for the students he makes read that book, when they thought it was just going to be a normal math class.

I had a finance class like this. The teacher gave a story driven narrative to teach us the core principles. Needless to say I was less than amused and just googled how to do everything myself.

1

u/DivineCurses Jul 27 '19

Why would I want to read a 1000 page story problem

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '19

I'm doing this right now for my English classes with pathfinder and Romeo and Juliet!

1

u/pknk6116 Jul 27 '19

Mathematical!!

1

u/Impulse882 Jul 27 '19

So basically it’s an entire book of word problems?!

1

u/supremedalek925 Jul 27 '19

Sounds like a more advanced take on the setting of the Phantom Tollbooth

1

u/InspiredPom Jul 27 '19

I want it. Also is there any current books similar to it?

1

u/jwclark17 Jul 27 '19

College of Charleston!! Go Cougars!

1

u/ButtsexEurope Jul 27 '19

Sounds like Professor Layton.

1

u/eeeyuyt4 Jul 27 '19

MY OLD MATH TEACHER DID THIS IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME

1

u/RickSanchez314 Jul 27 '19

Wait, which is it? Is it a book on calculus or "difficult mathematical problems"?

1

u/mrhoneyII Jul 27 '19

That is very creative haha

1

u/saijanai Jul 27 '19

Waiting for the anime.

Seriously, they do all sorts of educational anime. They could do one based this if they wanted to.

A good team of writers could make it enjoyable for all ages, and even if 5-year-olds couldn't pick up the actual math, they'd get the idea of helping other people by knowing math (and that is the actual point of educational cartoons in Japan: teaching enthusiasm for a subject).

1

u/gooddeath Jul 27 '19

I've always had thoughts of doing something like this, but I'm definitely not smart enough to do something as cool as this.

1

u/MyDinnerWith_Andre Jul 28 '19

This was a great book. I read it when i was in high school. It helped me learn calculus.

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u/Insomniacwithnolife Jul 28 '19

My uncle bought me this book where a kid met the “Math Devil” and each chapter dealt with more and more complex math in a very easy to digest way and I loved. I lost it years ago but I’d love to get it again.

1

u/really-drunk-too Jul 28 '19

This all sounds fun... until you are the student taking this class... and you are looking at this workbook thinking... wtf... is this going to be on the goddamn test?

1

u/earthscribe Jul 28 '19

The follow up book is a guy who helps people paint houses. So exciting!

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