Why Math is Like the Honey Badger: Nate Silver Ascendant. “Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since one who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences, or the things of this world.
And what is worst, those who are thus ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance, and so do not seek a remedy.” — Roger Bacon It’s no secret that lots of people hate and fear any kind of math. I certainly spent much of my life fighting a kneejerk inward cringe at the mere sight of an equation, and many of the folks I spoke with while writing The Calculus Diaries had even more extreme reactions. They talked about sweaty palms, cold sweats, and a cold knot of dread in the pit of their stomachs when encountering anything to do with numbers. Per my friend Lee, who initially failed her high school algebra class: “It wrecked my self-confidence in a way nothing else ever did, and still knots my stomach. PhET: Free online physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and math simulations.