Hating on algebra is all the rage these days. From New York Times editorials to cute little Facebook images, it seems that we’re settling into a big assumption: algebra is not useful to the average person. For the most part, this idea
So last summer, I wrote about my disdain for math-geared summer camps. And I was summarily schooled by my friend Lynn Salvo, founder of MathTree, which offers summer camps in Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland and Delaware. She was right, of course,
On Wednesday, we talked about sample bias, or ways to really screw up the results of a survey or study. So how can researchers avoid this problem? By being random. There are several kinds of samples from simple random samples to
Continuing with our review of basic math skills, let’s take a little look-see at statistics. This field is not only vast (and confusing for many folks) but also hugely important in our daily lives. Just about every single thing we
I do enjoy a good whiskey. So when I had the chance to interview a real, live distiller, I jumped at it. Bonus: Lance Winters is funny as hell. Seriously. He’s also not shy about explaining how he uses math
As I continue to crawl from under a mountain of work, I thought I’d share a really cool webseries that I discovered late last year. It’s not clear if the series will continue this spring or not, but you can
No, I did not have the flu. No, I did not fall off the face of the earth. No, I did not abandon my math-writing career in favor of tightrope walking at the circus. In fact, I have simply been
So yesterday, we reviewed some really basic stuff about percentages. Like: 10% is the same thing as 1/10 or 0.1. Easy peasy, right? Well, today it’s time to really put this stuff to work, finding percentages of numbers or the numbers,
Ever have one of those strings of bad ju-ju that just won’t quit? Welcome to the last two weeks of my life. From email woes to blog problems, it’s as if the electronic gods have cursed me. This is my
We’re wrapping up a review of fractions today. If you missed Monday’s or Wednesday’s posts, be sure to look back to refresh your memory on multiplying and dividing fractions. If you’re the product of a traditional elementary and middle school education, you likely spent
New here? You’ve stumbled upon January’s Review of Math Basics here at Math for Grownups. This week, we’re doing a quick refresher of fractions. Monday was multiplication, so if you missed that, you might want to take a quick look before reading further.
Welcome to Week 2 of January’s Back to Math Basics — a quick review of the basic math that you need to do everyday math. Answers to last Friday’s integers questions are at the end of this post. When kids are first