Welcome to the first edition of Ask a Math Teacher, which will feature real, live math questions from real, live people. How often will I do this? As often as I can. What kinds of questions can you expect? Whatever people ask. If
So the Sumerian system of numbers — as far as we know, the first in the world — came into being rather naturally and out of necessity. But the Egyptians took things one step further, and they did it very systematically. Priests and
When the world began 4.54 billion years ago, it didn’t come with numbers. They didn’t appear with the dinosaurs or first mammals or even the first homo sapiens. That’s because numbers were createdas a way to describe the world. And that
There are numbers, and there are special numbers. Okay, so just like children, all numbers are special. But a few of these numbers have qualities that make them stand out from all of the rest. Some of them you’ll recognize right away, because
So tomorrow the world is supposed to end. Okay, not quite. The rapture will begin. Apparently Earth won’t be destroyed until October 21. So you have some time to get your $@*% together. But this isn’t the only reason that the