Why is math so hard? And why, despite this difficulty, are
some people so good at it? If there''s some inborn capacity for
mathematical thinking--which there must be, otherwise no one could
do it --why can''t we all do it well? Keith Devlin has answers to
all these difficult questions, and in giving them shows us how
mathematical ability evolved, why it''s a part of language ability,
and how we can make better use of this innate talent.He also offers
a breathtakingly new theory of language development--that language
evolved in two stages, and its main purpose was not
communication--to show that the ability to think mathematically
arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so
crucial to the emergence of true language. Why, then, can''t we do
math as well as we can speak? The answer, says Devlin, is that we
can and do--we just don''t recognize when we''re using mathematical
reasoning.
關於作者:
SALES POINTS A simple and appealing message - everyone has the
ability to do maths Contains advice on how we can improve our
mathematical skills Keith Devlin is a world-renowned expert on
maths He is the award-winning author of many books on the subject
''Devlin''s explanations of complex mathematical conundrums in
layman''s terms are brilliantly simple'' Edge --This text refers to
an alternate Paperback edition.