In mathematics, one does not understand anything. You just get used to them. Johann Von Neumann

Defining mile posts along the way from counting your toes to doing calculus

The world has divided itself in two factions: those who think they don’t understand math and those who think they do. But we’re not talking about proving Fermat’s Last Theorem or correcting Stephan Hawking’s tensor algebra; we’re talking about counting, applying the four basic operators, and solving the dreaded word problems using basic algebra, geometry, and perhaps a little calculus. That just about covers the range from counting your toes to determining the spot in the outfield where a player should stand to catch a fly ball and should be good enough to get you through freshman math.

Continue reading . . . A Spectrum of Math Proficiency

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