5 ms·

I teach high school math and science. I had a group of students do a mini-project around the question, "Is there anything bigger than infinity?" The core of the

by japhyr 12y ago

I teach high school math and science. I had a group of students do a mini-project around the question, "Is there anything bigger than infinity?" The core of the project was students watching this numberphile video [0], and recreating his reasoning on their own. That project helped them reason about higher-level math in a way they never thought themselves capable. The idea of "magic" never came up, but they certainly spoke about their sense of wonder at higher-level math. I really appreciate the way he presents mathematical concepts. [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elvOZm0d4H0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elvOZm0d4H0

asdfjkln 12y ago
I think the quality of numberphile videos vary quite considerably. The one you linked is a rather honest explanation of the idea of comparing the size of sets through bijections and a good explanation of Cantors diagonal argument. As a mathematician I'm quite fine with it. The one linked in the submission is more of an obvious statement hidden by obscure use of language. Slightly silly, but not very bad. The worst offender with "magic" is the one with the Riemann zeta function [1], which went viral a while ago. The problem here is that they get people started off on the wrong foot, confusing them with wrong arguments and hidden definitions. Now, if people really want to understand why this can be made meaningful, you first have to explain that the better portion of the video is absolutely wrong, and only then can you explain what is actually going on. [1] http://youtu.be/w-I6XTVZXww http://youtu.be/w-I6XTVZXww