Jim writes: << I'm teaching a course on quantitative reasoning for an audience of nearly two hundred math-averse students, and one of the ways I'm hoping to "sell the product" to them is to pitch the course as a kind of self-defense art that helps you not get ripped off by used car dealers, cell-phone companies, credit-card companies, banks, etc. . . . . . . . . .
Hmmm. There's a classic book by Darrell Huff called "How to Lie With Statistics" -- and not being misled by statistics is an important form of mathematical self-defense. Chain letters also come to mind, the kind that can expand exponentially and make the originators quite a lot of money while leaving most of the the nth-generation folks $25 poorer. (Aside to Thane: Does this kind of chain letter qualify as a form of a Ponzi scheme? Does Amway?) --Dan