Comments on: Basic Math: When will I use that?! http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/ Scott Trudeau's web log Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:01:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: David Eads http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/#comment-6507 Tue, 09 May 2006 14:55:14 +0000 http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/#comment-6507 I went to one of his conferences. Highly recommended -- completely worth the money. If you're a student, it's the price of buying all his books, but ... you get copies of all his books. Neatest thing he used for show-and-tell: an excellent condition book from the 17th century that did 3 dimensional geometrical proofs with little tabs of paper that folded up to actually make cubes, pyramids, etc. I went to one of his conferences. Highly recommended — completely worth the money. If you’re a student, it’s the price of buying all his books, but … you get copies of all his books.

Neatest thing he used for show-and-tell: an excellent condition book from the 17th century that did 3 dimensional geometrical proofs with little tabs of paper that folded up to actually make cubes, pyramids, etc.

]]> by: Scott http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/#comment-6323 Tue, 09 May 2006 00:17:41 +0000 http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/#comment-6323 Edward Tufte would be rolling in his grave, but <a href="http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/" rel="nofollow">he's not dead</a>. And if you're wondering what I'm talking about, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961392142/" rel="nofollow">read this book</a>. The title is boring and it has a somewhat baroque appearance but hot DAMN it's a good book on reading and designing well, visual display of quantitative information. Edward Tufte would be rolling in his grave, but he’s not dead.

And if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, read this book. The title is boring and it has a somewhat baroque appearance but hot DAMN it’s a good book on reading and designing well, visual display of quantitative information.

]]> by: David Eads http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/#comment-6320 Tue, 09 May 2006 00:09:52 +0000 http://sstrudeau.com/2006/05/07/basic-math-when-will-i-use-that/#comment-6320 I find myself doing a lot of basic math of the <a href="http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~gleeson/httb/section1_3_3_5.html" rel="nofollow">Fermi problem</a> variety. Instead of how many "piano tuners are there in Chicago?" most recently it was "how many cars are there in downtown Chicago during the business day and how does it compare to the emissions from outdoor smoking?" A good bullshit detector should always include some "order of magnitude" type calculators. The other place where I find basic mathematical reasoning at work on a daily basis is looking at graphs. First question, always: does the graph's dimensionality sanely correspond to the dimensionality of the underlying phenomena. The NY Times, usually pretty good about these things, recently ran an illustration of big 3-dimensional W filled with "water" to compare... Bush's economic approval rating to his overall poll rating. 3 dimensions and a lot of column inches for two one dimensional datapoints. Ahem? I find myself doing a lot of basic math of the Fermi problem variety. Instead of how many “piano tuners are there in Chicago?” most recently it was “how many cars are there in downtown Chicago during the business day and how does it compare to the emissions from outdoor smoking?” A good bullshit detector should always include some “order of magnitude” type calculators.

The other place where I find basic mathematical reasoning at work on a daily basis is looking at graphs. First question, always: does the graph’s dimensionality sanely correspond to the dimensionality of the underlying phenomena. The NY Times, usually pretty good about these things, recently ran an illustration of big 3-dimensional W filled with “water” to compare… Bush’s economic approval rating to his overall poll rating. 3 dimensions and a lot of column inches for two one dimensional datapoints. Ahem?

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