The Math Instinct: Why You’re a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs)
I just finished reading a book called The Math Instinct: Why You’re a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs) by Keith Devlin. Keith Devlin is NPR’s “Math guy,” and so the book reads a lot like NPR in the sense that it doesn’t insult your intelligence, but is very accessible to anyone with some education.
The book discusses how mathematic concepts surface in nature. Topics covered include:
- magnetic navigation of lobsters
- echolocation of bats
- Fibonacci sequence in plants
- “street math” in Brazil
- behavior patterns of animals that can only be understood as mathmatical functions
- evolution & the natural development of a “math sense”
- how to improve your math skills by tapping into your natural skills
Amazon.com’s review has this to say:
There are two kinds of math: the hard kind and the easy kind. The easy kind, practiced by ants, shrimp, Welsh corgis—and us—is innate.
What innate calculating skills do we humans have? Leaving aside built-in mathematics, such as the visual system, ordinary people do just fine when faced with mathematical tasks in the course of the day. Yet when they are confronted with the same tasks presented as “math,” their accuracy often drops.
But if we have innate mathematical ability, why do we have to teach math and why do most of us find it so hard to learn? Are there tricks or strategies that the ordinary person can do to improve mathematical ability? Can we improve our math skills by learning from dogs, cats, and other creatures that “do math”? The answer to each of these questions is a qualified yes. All these examples of animal math suggest that if we want to do better in the formal kind of math, we should see how it arises from natural mathematics.
From NPR’s “Math Guy”—The Math Instinct will provide even the most number-phobic among us with confidence in our own mathematical abilities.
While I personally don’t feel “number-phobic,” I still found the book to be a fascinating, easy read well-suited to those of us who may have an interest in and appreciation for mathematics, but don’t particularly want to return to calculus class or whip out the TI-85.
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