2022-07-25
31 分钟Every day, we humans do math. Whether we are obsessed with a logic puzzle on our smartphones or even just calculating a morning alarm that gives you 8 more minutes in bed, our daily lives are full of numbers, quantities, shapes and patterns. And for Francis Su—a writer and Professor of Mathematics and the Former President of the Mathematical Association of America—math is actually one of the things that makes us human. In today’s episode he talks about how mathematics can serve as a tool for social justice, how math can enhance our sense of aesthetics and beauty, why math is one of the last refuges of truth in a time where misinformation is rampant, and how we can all learn to cultivate, and even come to love, the little daily mathematics of our lives.
Ted audio collective.
You'Re listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
On today's episode, we're going to be talking about math.
And before you skip this episode, because you're saying to yourself, I'm not a math person, listen, that is exactly what I would have said, too.
I was an english major.
Math has always seemed like something that other people do, but surely, surely not me, until I read a book by todays guest Francis Hsu.
And that is when I realized that theres a lot more to this subject than I had ever realized.
Its kind of like how sometimes when I tell people, im a comedian, they go, oh, I could never do that.
I am not funny.
I could never tell a joke.
But everyone has some sort of sense of humor, right?
And Francis convinced me that we all have some inherent mathematical sense, too.
So how do we break the stereotypes around who math is for?
And how do we stop seeing math.
As a test of whether we're good.
At adding things up, but instead as an amazing way to understand and enhance our humanity?
Well, here is what today's guest, renowned mathematician and author Francis Hsu, has to say about that.
The usual way people think about math is something you do to compute a tip at a restaurant, right?
It's mechanical.