Comment due Sunday, September 22
Contents
Background
Gracie’s questions
Gracie Cunningham was a student who went viral on Twitter a few years ago when someone tweeted her Tik Tok and said, “this is the dumbest video ive ever seen.” (That person’s Twitter account was soon suspended btw.)
Hint: if the Tik Tok doesn’t play here on the OpenLab, you can watch it over on Tik Tok (you don’t have to have a Tik Tok account).
After catching a lot of hate on Twitter, Gracie made a follow-up video and tweeted it herself. (I like both videos but I think I prefer the first one tbh.)
Alongside all the critical comments calling her dumb, Gracie got a huge outpouring of support from mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, and teachers, who loved her videos. Like, really, really loved them.
Dr. Cheng’s answers
Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician who is very good at explaining math to non-mathematicians. She’s published a few popular books about math for a general audience and is very active on social media. She’s even appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert!
Gracie’s questions are mostly about the history and philosophy of math (which is a real academic discipline that people can study and get PhD’s in!). Some of her questions have concrete answers and some of her questions just lead to more questions. When Dr. Cheng saw Gracie’s videos and the critical comments on them, she tried answering Gracie’s questions one-by-one on her blog.
Assignment instructions
None of us are experts in the history of math or in the philosophy of math (unless there’s something you’re not telling us in your OpenLab introduction post from last week!). But we all have studied math and encountered math in some form in our day-to-day lives…which means that we’ve all spent time thinking about math, so we can ask questions about it.
For this week’s assignment, think about math in the big picture of the human experience, not just the math you see in your math classes.
- Watch both of Gracie’s videos above and read Eugenia Cheng’s blog post.
- Choose one of the following prompts:
- What are you curious about? Have you ever had any questions like “Is math real?” or like Gracie’s questions that you’ve thought about before? What is one of your questions and what have your thoughts been about it? Was there something in particular that made you have question? Was there something that changed your mind about how you think about it? Do you have any possible answers for your question, even if they contradict each other?
- Which of Dr. Cheng’s answers is the most interesting to you? Why? Did you agree with everything she said or do you have a different idea? How would you have answered this question?
- Imagine Gracie is your friend. What would your answers to her questions be? Which of her questions would you ask her more questions about? What would you ask her? How would you engage with her ideas in a supportive way?
- What’s something mathematical that you have encountered in your life that had nothing to do with the math you learned in school? Was there a problem you had to solve on your own? Did you have to look up how to solve it or did you figure out a way to solve it yourself? Did you use algebra without realizing you used algebra? How do you know what you did counts as math instead of as something that’s not math?
- Look up the history of a mathematical fact, formula, or idea. What problem were people trying to solve when they discovered it? How did it solve the problem for them? How did they know they were right and how did they use it? What is the story of this fact, formula, or idea? (I’m not sure how reliable it is, but the website the Story of Mathematics might be a good place to start).
- Make your own video (on Tik Tok or anywhere else that’s public) asking your own questions about the history and philosophy of math.
- In a comment below, respond to the prompt you chose in at least 5 sentences. Make sure to tell us which prompt you chose so we know what you’re responding to! If you are making your own video, include a link to it in your comment.
You will receive participation credit for your comment.
Dr chengās interview
I think dr chengās answer was pretty interesting to me because when she said that math is like cooking food or making something delicious because like math and cooking you can use abstraction simplify situations by ignoring some details and adding some variables later.
The essence of mathematics lies in finding commonalities among various things, allowing you to apply a single “formula” to multiple scenarios.
I’ve always had the same questions as Gracie I’ve always wondered how does one invent an equation. One question I’ve always had was how was pre calc invented and why. Where in our everyday lives do we need to graph a function. I understand now that people’s job to teach it but is still a question that stays on my mind.
C. If Gracie was my friend, I would tell her that I totally understand where she is coming from and that sometimes it seems like things are made more complicated than they seem to be. But math is used all around us besides adding and subtracting, we need math for buildings, or creating ramps for those in need. Math is not something that gets invented but more like discovered. Looking at a little detail around us can cause us to discover a new concept or idea. I would ask her how she manages her finances or how she does taxes. These two things are used in our day to day lives. Back then people used algebra as artist. To create their flooring or walls in the right angles.
D.
I once had to organize a community event and figure out how many people could fit in the space while dividing them into groups for activities. I estimated the area, thought about how much room each person needed, and worked out how many activities we could run at once. I didnāt think of it as math at first, but I ended up using ratios and proportions without even realizing it. It clicked for me that math is all around us in everyday problem-solving, like planning or budgeting, even if itās not in a traditional classroom setting.
Just like Gracie, I’ve had the same questions. I’ve had speculations about what letters and graphs have to do with math, and how someone invents an equation. For me, math just seemed like adding and subtracting numbers. One question I have is why was Precalculus, Calculus, Trigonometry, and other advanced math electives and why? I have no answers to these questions.
Question B.
Which of Dr. Chengās answers is the most interesting to you? Why? Did you agree with everything she said or do you have a different idea? How would you have answered this question?
Answer:-
Based on the video “Dr. Eugenia Cheng Gives Paula Deen A Run For He Butter,” I found her math explanation through baking fascinating. It is very interesting how she blends something as abstract as math with something practical like baking. In the video, Dr. Cheng uses a recipe for puff pastry to demonstrate mathematical concepts like ratios, which is super relatable since many of us bake/cook without thinking of the math behind it. Her answer to how math can be applied to everyday life really clicked with me because she shows how precision in ratios impacts the outcome, whether the pastry turns out fluffy or dense. If I had to answer this question myself, I’d emphasize that math is everywhere, such as in activities we consider purely creative or fun. I love cooking; it’s one of my favorite things to do, and this video truly made me think that even though cooking is often seen as an art, but its also deeply mathematical in a way that impacts the result. It connects with my belief that math is a discovery and something that we create.
In dr. cheng’s interview, below I chose this prompt:
One of Dr. Cheng’s answers, “ We are also not threatened by difficult questions, and some of us get our self-esteem from helping people understand stuff, not by making others feel stupid. I think that some people who aren’t actually mathematicians but think of themselves as “math people” have a very fixed view of what math is, and it has to line up with what they think they’re good at”
This answer I liked the most because math is all about numbers, letters, and symbols and understanding how to put them together in order to able to solve any problem. Also is to not make others feel misunderstood in other words they mentioned “stupid” we don’t want that because everyone is smart and everyone has their own unique way of understanding something when it is being asked, some are a bit behind, some are way too far advanced, others are like in the borderline which that is okay too. Math comes with our daily lives that we no other choice but to learn it and take it with us wherever we go.