Be honest: did you actually read [the above geometric proof]? Of course not. Who would want to? The effect of such a production being made over something so simple is to make people doubt their own intuition. Calling into question the obvious by insisting that it be 'rigorously proved' ... is to say to a student 'Your feelings and ideas are suspect. You need to think and speak our way. Paul Lockhart
Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.
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Mark Haddon
Mathematics expresses values that reflect the cosmos, including orderliness, balance, harmony, logic, and abstract beauty.
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Deepak Chopra
If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
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John Von Neumann
Do you mean ter tell me, " he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy–this boy! –knows nothin' abou'–about ANYTHING?"Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad." I know some things, " he...
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J.k. Rowling
But Piglet is so small that he slips into a pocket, where it is very comfortable to feel him when you are not quite sure whether twice seven is twelve or twenty-two.
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A.a. Milne
More Quotes By Paul Lockhart
The thing I want you especially to understand is this feeling of divine revelation. I feel that this structure was "out there" all along I just couldn't see it. And now I can! This is really what keeps me in the math game-- the chance...
No mathematician in the world would bother making these senseless distinctions: 2 1/2 is a "mixed number " while 5/2 is an "improper fraction." They're EQUAL for crying out loud. They are the exact same numbers and have the exact same properties. Who uses such...
Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.
A good problem is something you don't know how to solve. That's what makes it a good puzzle and a good opportunity.
Why don't we want our children to learn to do mathematics? Is it that we don't trust them, that we think it's too hard? We seem to feel that they are capable of making arguments and coming to their own conclusions about Napoleon. Why not...
