Are you going to publish a version of the Intro to Number Theory book for younger people? Or is it same content published digitally? Very cool either way and best of luck. Wish I'd been intro'd to this work when I was young!
I have a few hundred pages of educational material on number theory. I am trying to decide what to do with the several thousand pages of educational content I have. But for the moment, there are just a couple of textbooks available through Art of Problem Solving.
I’m just curious to see what it is. I didn’t do math the way they taught me, I was pretty good at it (10 years in the Marines made me an idiot though)…I was a post secondary student my last two years of HS. Tested into a college calc class for fun (I passed but they found out I was in high school and said no lol). And I miss math. Like a lot. So I’m super curious as to what you’re talking about mostly for fun.
You say here no pre-algebra… why? Does it have to be the first way someone learns or do you really think it’s hard to learn multiple techniques? Genuinely curious because I learned things a couple different ways and I think some techniques are cool and I’m sure I’m missing some.
Oh yeah I absolutely get that. But as an adult (I have no one that fits your criteria) I love learning different methods. Is this a specific kind of method or something new? I say new only in reference to the “allowed” methods in school? My dad used to teach me stuff out of his 1930 encyclopedias 😁. I’m genuinely curious.
Jul 2, 2022·edited Jul 2, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
Ugh, my son just missed this opportunity! He loves math (he sits by himself to do math problems on his own), but turned 13 last month and we covered pre-algebra last winter/spring.
What would be really helpful is a course for my other son who is older, but has learning & behavioral struggles. He does okay with multiplication, but never really understood division.
This is gonna be interesting to observe regardless.
I came up with a way to teach multiplication using the FOIL method to elementary schoolers. I think that better prepares them for algebra. Like for example to multiply 12 X 34 you split it up into (10 + 2)(30 + 4) My trig teacher thought it would be too complicated to teach them but I don't see how it's any more complicated than long division. I never really got the hang of long division especially for polynomials, nor synthetic division but you don't need to know how to use either of them to divide polynomials.
I am really interest in this Mathew. I teach my son maths because he struggles in school. He was tested in the 3rd percentile 2 years ago (yes bottom), and is now in the upper stream in his school doing ok. He’s 10.
I am so looking forward to this lesson ,I did learn some algebra 😊but that was 56 years ago 🤣😂Recently teaching a 5 year old how to read I realised something was seriously wrong with the course material.I wondered why they had to learn Alien words ( not existant).
After some research, the authors didn’t want the intelligent children to have an unfair advantage by recognising real words!!This is in the UK.
Totally ridiculous , designed to dumb down and make complicated learning of useless words.This is what they call EQUITY….My least favourite word because everyone says this is about fairness and equality…IT IS NOT.
Are you going to publish a version of the Intro to Number Theory book for younger people? Or is it same content published digitally? Very cool either way and best of luck. Wish I'd been intro'd to this work when I was young!
I have a few hundred pages of educational material on number theory. I am trying to decide what to do with the several thousand pages of educational content I have. But for the moment, there are just a couple of textbooks available through Art of Problem Solving.
I’m just curious to see what it is. I didn’t do math the way they taught me, I was pretty good at it (10 years in the Marines made me an idiot though)…I was a post secondary student my last two years of HS. Tested into a college calc class for fun (I passed but they found out I was in high school and said no lol). And I miss math. Like a lot. So I’m super curious as to what you’re talking about mostly for fun.
You say here no pre-algebra… why? Does it have to be the first way someone learns or do you really think it’s hard to learn multiple techniques? Genuinely curious because I learned things a couple different ways and I think some techniques are cool and I’m sure I’m missing some.
"You say here no pre-algebra… why?"
If you're going to teach something, it makes sense that the learner has not mastered part of the material yet, or possibly learned it the wrong way.
Oh yeah I absolutely get that. But as an adult (I have no one that fits your criteria) I love learning different methods. Is this a specific kind of method or something new? I say new only in reference to the “allowed” methods in school? My dad used to teach me stuff out of his 1930 encyclopedias 😁. I’m genuinely curious.
I have a child thats the right age. Sending an email now.
Ugh, my son just missed this opportunity! He loves math (he sits by himself to do math problems on his own), but turned 13 last month and we covered pre-algebra last winter/spring.
What would be really helpful is a course for my other son who is older, but has learning & behavioral struggles. He does okay with multiplication, but never really understood division.
This is gonna be interesting to observe regardless.
For the moment, this is one small targeted experiment.
I came up with a way to teach multiplication using the FOIL method to elementary schoolers. I think that better prepares them for algebra. Like for example to multiply 12 X 34 you split it up into (10 + 2)(30 + 4) My trig teacher thought it would be too complicated to teach them but I don't see how it's any more complicated than long division. I never really got the hang of long division especially for polynomials, nor synthetic division but you don't need to know how to use either of them to divide polynomials.
I am really interest in this Mathew. I teach my son maths because he struggles in school. He was tested in the 3rd percentile 2 years ago (yes bottom), and is now in the upper stream in his school doing ok. He’s 10.
Man, I'd love to see how you teach Math! I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.
I am so looking forward to this lesson ,I did learn some algebra 😊but that was 56 years ago 🤣😂Recently teaching a 5 year old how to read I realised something was seriously wrong with the course material.I wondered why they had to learn Alien words ( not existant).
After some research, the authors didn’t want the intelligent children to have an unfair advantage by recognising real words!!This is in the UK.
Totally ridiculous , designed to dumb down and make complicated learning of useless words.This is what they call EQUITY….My least favourite word because everyone says this is about fairness and equality…IT IS NOT.