February 2023 - Math With Bad Drawings

[Betsy, co-mod]

For February 2023, we will be reading Math with Bad Drawings.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

[Rebecca (Adventurer)]

Picked up the library copy and looking forward to participating this month. :)

[Jessica]

I read this book a few years back and it was a lot of fun. I'm happy to have a reason to read it again.

[Betsy, co-mod]

Is anyone else reading this book?

[Nancy]

just picked it up at the library but haven't started it yet. got to finish Empire of Pain which is quite fat

[Jessica]

I'm reading it but I'm just so busy right now I'm reading no more than one chapter a day. Luckily, this is exactly the kind of book you can do that with. I just finished the 10 people you meet in line for the lottery and laughed right out loud. It's not a book that's heavy on information but the stick figure drawings sure are hilarious!

[Nancy]

I finally started it and am very much liking it. Gets you using your brain in a fun way. The author's style...a cross between a text book and a fun book...reminds me of Immune, which I also loved.

[Jessica]

Yes Nancy, I also loved Immune and I would agree that Math With Bad Drawings is in the same category. I finished yesterday. I don't have anything witty to say except that I enjoyed it. I didn't laugh as much as I did on my original read but there were still a couple lol moments.

[Daniel]

I had wanted to read this book for some time, so I am glad I got to check it off of my book list. I enjoyed the book, enjoyed the humor behind the drawings, but I did not find it as enjoyable as I had hoped. I definitely gained some kernels of knowledge and had a couple laughs but was not as engaged as I was hoping.

[Katy]

I finally have a copy of this book; looks like I will be a late reader.

[Nancy]

I am still really enjoying it. love the humor. I was hoping to learn more about how to actually do math.

[Nancy]

OK, I'm done, great book. But I am struggling with a concept so I'm going to ask a question. In Chapter 1, the author presents this problem: Create 2 rectangles so the the first has exactly twice the perimeter of the second and the second has exactly twice the area of the first.
So I'm trying to solve this and my head soon feels like it's going to explode. There is a solution in the Endnotes which I can follow up to the point where he says: "We can guarantee c is a whole number by taking d=4a+1." Where does that even come from?

[Jessica]

Nancy I know exactly what you're talking about and I have the same exact question every time I try to read that. Does he just make up that equation out of nowhere? Lol. I don't get it.

[Nancy]

Jessica, I'm glad to know it ain't just me!

[David]

Nancy wrote: "OK, I'm done, great book. But I am struggling with a concept so I'm going to ask a question. In Chapter 1, the author presents this problem: Create 2 rectangles so the the first has exactly twice t..."

I tried and tried, and did not come up with that solution (I do not have a copy of the book). However this web page has two different solution approaches, for an infinite family of solutions:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questi...

I keep coming up with the second of the two solution approaches. However, I think that the author took the first solution approach. If, in that mathematics web site we switch a & b around, then we get the requirement that d > 4a. I think the author chose the particular solution that d = 4a+1, so that the denominators are =-1.

[Nancy]

So he just CHOSE that solution because it fit the criteria?

[Nancy]

Thanks for the link! I was looking for A solution, not a family of solutions, and I had a sneaky suspicion the quadratic formula might be involved and when I see that I run the other way because I can never get that to work out for me.