Lucas Blogs About Math With Bad Drawings

Wait, math is about more than numbers?

So, what's this book's deal?

You may be unsurprised to learn that Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas that Shape Our Reality is an educational book for grown-ups that tries to make mathematical concepts easily accessible to those of us who don't have a background in math.

You took AP Calculus BC in high school.

For a semester, but this is even more straightforward than that. Rather than trying to teach the reader how to perform complex calculations or solve equations, Orlin presents the reader with real world scenarios and explains the mathematics underpinning them. These practical demonstrations are divided up into five sections that broadly discuss: Mathematical Thinking, Geometry, Probability, Statistics, and Continuous/Discrete variables.

Huh, so like a kind of practical guide to mathematical concepts?

Yeah, it's not bogged down with a lot of equations (there are some in the endnotes) but instead strives to present these ideas with concrete examples that anyone can understand (including an oral history of the various headaches involved in the construction of the Death Star, and why its spherical shape ultimately made its destruction inevitable).

So it's one of those insufferable learning-is-fun things?

What's insufferable about the idea of learning being fun?

Look, you don't learn math to have fun, you learn math because . . .  why do you learn math again?

Because it offers an invaluable toolset for describing the world in which we live and the forces that act in and on that world?

Hmm, I'm pretty sure it actually has something to do with standardized testing.

Well, in the introduction, Orlin talks a little bit about his time as a math teacher and about math education in general. And yeah, culturally we seem to have decided that math aught to be this Sisyphean endeavor. A means for students to demonstrate their ability to do a lot of meaningless busy work to show colleges that they have what it takes to really apply themselves to something useful. As a math teacher, Orlin obviously would like to change this. Hence the book (and the blog on which it is based), which aims to help the reader better understand how math relates not only to the world but to our day-to-day lives.

And it does this without being insultingly simple or talking down to the reader?

Mostly. I can't speak for everyone, but about halfway through the text I realized that it wasn't going to cover anything that I hadn't already learned in high school and college. Not that I'd retained it, but the book was more of a refresher than anything else. I wouldn't say that Orlin talks down to his audience, but his commitment to explaining mathematical concepts without using equations is sometimes to the book's detriment. I get that he wants the book to be as accessible as possible to those who are not mathematically inclined, but sometimes the best way to do that is to show an actual equation and label the terms.

Can we agree to disagree on that one?

I suppose.

Do you have a simple up or down verdict on this one?

Oh, definitely up. If you want to know a little more about math or if you feel like you could use a re-up, this book is a straightforward exploration of mathematical concepts that uses humor to ease you into a topic that some people have an irrational fear of.

Huh? Well, this was kind of short.

Yeah, I guess so.

Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas that Shape Our Reality by Ben Orlin, Black Dog & Levanthal Publishers Hardcover edition, 367 pages, pairs well with nostalgia for Bill Nye and other educational shows from the 90s

Links:

Ben Orlin's blog, if you're into that kinda thing.

If you're into math or bad drawings, you may also enjoy the webcomic xkcd.