Doing the Math (Updated)

Wonder Cabinet

Wonder Cabinet Productions

Society & Culture, Wonder, Philosophy, Ttbook, Knowledge, Interview

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2015

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why do Americans suck at math? And why do so many claim to hate math? In a recent survey, a third of respondents said they'd rather clean the bathroom than solve an equation. In today's show, mathematicians tell us what we're missing. How Not To Be Wrong; The Calculus Diaries; Russian Postal System Puzzle; The Magician of Mathematics; The Magic of Pi; Neal Stephenson Blows Up The Moon.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strain Champs. Today, doing the math.
0:09.0	Another national report card is in, and it appears Americans are still not very good at math.
0:15.0	A whopping three-quarters of high school seniors scored below their grade level.
0:19.0	And adult Americans aren't much better.
0:21.8	One survey found nearly a third of us would rather clean the bathroom than solve an equation.
0:27.5	Why do so many people hate math?
0:30.4	What can math do for me?
0:31.6	I was certainly that obnoxious teenager in high school geometry class that said,
0:35.4	are we ever going to really use this in real life?
0:37.8	Why do I need to know this?
0:38.9	Because it just seems so irrelevant.
0:42.9	Math? How am I supposed to know that?
0:45.5	I'm a beautiful, popular, rich kid with a promising future
0:48.0	in a lightweight sorority at a state college.
0:49.8	I don't need to know that stuff.
0:53.0	You're taking 12th grade calculus?
0:55.4	Yeah, I like math.
0:56.9	Ew, why?
0:58.5	Because it's the same in every country.
1:00.4	It's beautiful.
1:01.7	This girl is deep.
1:03.8	People don't like to be wrong.
	...

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