Simon Singh on teaching Maths, etc
A great podcast with Simon Singh at Numberphile.
The first time I encountered a sophisticated mathematical joke was as a teenager, while reading Concepts of Modern Mathematics by Ian Stewart:
“An astronomer, a physicist, and a mathematician (it is said) were holidaying in Scotland. Glancing from a train window, they observed a black sheep in the middle of a field. “How interesting,” observed the astronomer, “all Scottish sheep are black!” To which the physicist responded, “No, no! Some Scottish sheep are black!” The mathematician gazed heavenward in supplication, and then intoned, “In Scotland there exists at least one field, containing at least one sheep, at least one side of which is black.”
I stored that joke in the back of my head for the next seventeen years and then included it in my first book, which discussed the history and proof of Fermat’s last theorem. The joke was a perfect illustration of the rigorous nature of mathematics. Indeed, I was so fond of the joke, I would often recount the tale of the black sheep while lecturing, and afterward members of the audience would sometimes approach me and tell me their own jokes about π, infinity, abelian groups, and Zorn’s lemma.
Singh, Simon. The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets
For Comment: What do you think of “parallel” as a teaching tool— free weekly mathematics puzzle sheets for 10 to 14-year-olds.
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