Book Review: Burn Math Class
Recommendations from Scientific American
By Jennifer Hackett
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Burn Math Class: And Reinvent Mathematics for Yourself
by Jason Wilkes
Basic Books, 2016 ($29.99)
Uninspired and unnecessarily complicated math courses have hidden the beauty of the discipline from many of us, asserts Wilkes, who has a background in mathematics. The cheekily named Burn Math Class is an informal primer on basic mathematical concepts meant to help people rediscover this beauty. He reinvigorates standard high school math topics through creative explanations and illuminating examples. For instance, he banishes the FOIL mnemonic (“first, outer, inner, last”) often taught to students for solving (a + b)2 and replaces it with a method that turns the equation into the area of a square, making the problem easy to solve without memorization.
Although Wilkes aims to reach the mathematically disinclined, math fans should be intrigued by his informal approach and determination to give the field a popularity boost.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
