Count Us In

How to Make Maths Real for All of Us

Author(s) Gareth Roberts

Language: English

Genre(s): Welsh Interest

  • February 2016 · 144 pages ·216x138mm

  • · Paperback - 9781783167968
  • · eBook - pdf - 9781783167975
  • · eBook - epub - 9781783167982

About The Book

Mathematics, like language, is a universal experience. Every society counts and is empowered by its ability to count and to measure. The mathematical processes developed within various cultures differ widely, and Count Us In explores these cultural links, drawing examples from the author’s personal experiences. The process of counting, like the process of communicating with words, is common to all societies worldwide but, just as there is a rich variety of languages, so too is there a rich variety in methods of counting and of recording numbers – methods that have developed over centuries to meet the needs of various groups of people. The narrative of this book takes the form of a collection of short stories based on the author’s personal experience, linked together by a number of sub-themes.

As a popular book on mathematics and on the personalities who created that mathematics, there are no prerequisites beyond the reader’s rudimentary and possibly hazy recollection of primary-school mathematics and a curiosity to know more.

Endorsements

‘A delightful and fascinating read about the role of maths in Wales, and the role of Wales in maths. Anyone with an interest in Welsh culture, maths history or education will love this book.’

Guardian blogger Alex Bellos, author of Alex’s Adventures in Numberland and Alex Through the Looking-Glass

'I struggled to understand my teacher's explanations in primary school and ended up being kept in every break time after maths class to redo my sums as punishment for not getting them right in the first place. As I hadn't understood what I was meant to be doing in the first place, I just got them all wrong again and fell further and further behind. So of course, I left school hating maths and have always felt stressed if the word is even mentioned. I saw your book in the library and thought it might be worth trying to read because no one needed to know if I couldn't finish it, or didn't understand it, and it's been so helpful. I got stuck on a few of the puzzles, and there were some bits that I didn't understand, but most of it made sense to me, and maths doesn't feel like this horrible thing I have to fear any more - it's just a language that I don't speak very well yet, but that's ok because I can keep practicing, just as I am doing with my (very beginner) Welsh. I'm busy recommending it to all my maths-hating friends.'

Philippa Scott Davidson

Contents

Figures and plates
Acknowledgements
Foreword
1 More cabbage, anyone?
2 Meeting of minds
3 Nothing will come of nothing
4 Setting the Recorde straight
5 Neither a borrower nor a lender be
6 Amazing Mayans
7 What do you reckon?
8 Prairie power
9 Putting down digital roots
10 Areas of (mis)understanding
11 Cracking the code
12 Does mathematics have a gender?
13 How to make maths real for all of us
Appendix
Answers to Puzzles
Notes on Chapters
Further Reading

About the Author(s)

Author(s): Gareth Roberts

Gareth Ffowc Roberts is Emeritus Professor of Education at Bangor University.

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