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[mathjax]One thing I realized while writing and editing the previous article is the depth of the mismatch between notation for addition and multiplication (on the one hand) and exponentiation (on the other). Students struggle with understanding the notation \(y = b^x\), and one reason that’s been clear to me is that there’s no overt operator.…
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[mathjax]By the time most students graduate from high school in the United States, they have seen the following operators*: Addition, subtraction, negation, multiplication, division, reciprocation, exponentiation, radicals, logarithms, sine, cosine, and tangent. There is a certain symmetry in this list: They are clearly grouped in threes, and I’ve listed them so the traditionally dominant one…
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My father insisted: “I’m not fat, I’m big-boned.” And though his Buddha belly strained at his clothing, it was true that his frame took up the whole of the room. He was not just six foot four. His rectangle was a door frame, and his voice was a thundercloud moving through the air. I do…
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The other day I kept catching my reflection in the window at the restaurant and the body dysmorphia was so strong. It wasn’t disgust at my gender, not at my weight, but at my presence. My frame is so freakin’ large compared to how I feel. I want to take up a tiny little space…
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[mathjax]Conceptually, subtraction and addition of negatives are two very different processes. Subtraction involves an undoing of addition: It is an inverse function. Addition of negatives involves an extension of the number system to a mirror world. The Exploding Dots model, for instance, relies on this extension. That is, here are two ways we can see…
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This next sentence may seem odd coming from me, but keep reading. It’s not transphobic to say that trans women athletes have a physical advantage over cis women. The medical truth of that statement has been debated, and I believe that, on the whole, it’s not true. There are certainly cases of trans women who…
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Years ago, when my spouse and I were on a bus in Toronto, the woman next to us turned and asked, “Are the voices in my head bothering you?” We were only a few blocks away from our destination, and we decided it would be faster to walk than stay on the bus because we…
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my dreams cower at the edges of my waking mindhaving rudely stormed my brain for another night i try to catch a glimpse of one, or another,shiniing my flashlight in the corner of the roombut they recoil and slither and shimmy maybe the light will bounce off one as it dodges awaybut all i see…
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i’m maskingi’m asking youto help me quietthe voices inside my headthat tell methat i can’t this fearthis spherearound meis a poisonous cocoonits safety comesat the costof slow suffocation a part aparthas come togetherto gatherthe pieces of my selfand leave me pronealonefragileisolatedabandoned until there is no more youto pull me out ofthis suffocating fear 03.22.22
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How notation gets in the way of understanding [mathjax]The other day I tweeted this: Objectively, I realize that \(\sqrt2\), \(\log6\), and \(\frac57\) are all specific numbers and that they’re the simplest way to write those specific numbers. But I struggle with convincing my brain of that. And if I struggle, I don’t at all wonder…