1. I chose The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (German) translated in English by Michael Henry Heim. This book talks about a young boy, Robert, who suffers from a mathematical anxiety. He also often experience recurring dreams. One night he is interrupted by a creature introduced to him as Number Devil. Number Devil will teach Robert math principles over the course of twelve nights. The first night, Number Devil introduces to Robert the number one. The second night he explains the importance of zeros and negative numbers, but he also talks about hopping which exponents. On the third night, Number Devil teaches Robert primes numbers and how they can only be divided by themselves and one. The next night, the young boy learns square roots. Using coconuts in the desert, Number Devil teaches him triangular numbers on the fifth night. On the sixth, Fibonacci numbers is the theme or simply Bonacci numbers. After this dream, Robert started changing. The seventh night, Number Devil presents Pascal's triangle. On the eight night, Robert learns permutations and factorials. Finally on the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth nights, Number Devil teaches to Robert respectively natural numbers, irrational numbers, mathematical proofs, and imaginary numbers. On that last dream, Robert is invited to Number Heaven where he meets famous mathematicians.
2. Number Devil refers to exponentiation as hopping numbers. The two were talking about the difference between two numbers (four and five which is one). Number Devil asked him why and explained to that it's like hopping. Numbers hop. They tried multiplying as many ones, then as many twos, then five. The numbers were growing very fast and faster if the base is bigger. He showed him that we could write that using exponents. Finally, he used the exemple of 1986 to show him how numbers hop; 1986 = 6*1 +8*10+9*100+1*1000.
3. I think literature is an effective way because they actually use words that you read to understand the meaning behing the math. It is more effective and easy language for the brain to understand and even more when there are images to give the brain a clearer view of everything. People are able to get the theorical part much easier.
This reading sounds like it could really teach you basic math! Great job on explaining the concept!
ReplyDeleteThis reading sounds like it could really teach you basic math! Great job on explaining the concept!
ReplyDeleteSounds like this is one of the more elaborate stories that have been posted on this blog. I'm surprised it contains such interesting topics as Pascal's triangle, or Fibonacci sequences.
ReplyDeleteaissatou,
ReplyDeletegreat synopsis of this book! this is truly one of my favorite books! i like that you addressed how the book goes into detail about pascal's triangle and the fibonacci sequence. i actually have used this book before in some of my college courses to teach both of these concepts and many other number patterns. and i dressed up as a number devil for halloween last year. haha.
i like your final statement and the fact that you note that literature is an effective tool for learning math topics for any individual, not just children.
very nice job!
professor little
The summarization of the books concepts was great! This would have been a great book for me to read when I was younger to learn about math. I agree that literature is effective in teaching math because it uses words to understand the numerical meanings behind math.
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