Another option would be to recommend the recent popular math books by mathematicians Steve Strogatz ("The Joy of x") and Jordan Ellenberg ("How Not To Be Wrong"). Jim Propp On Sunday, December 14, 2014, Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> wrote:
On 14/12/2014 01:21, Bernie Cosell wrote:
I think you're onto something -- calculus came up because of something we
were discussing... But the fact is that to first order *ALL* of mathematics is beautiful if presented properly, and I realize that I if I succeeded in teaching some calculus, my friend would have learned exactly nothing useful. But your suggestion got me thinking: instead of calculus I'll propose probability and statistics. Both can be a lot of fun and useful in everyday life [especially if you *understand* them]... and no need to teach derivations but knowing some about the distributions [without the ugly equations behind them] or what a "t-test" is and what it tells you can be something good to know. I'll try that tack.
Another option: Find a fairly broad-ranging recreational mathematics book, give it to your friend, and ask what s/he finds most interesting in it. If the answer is "nothing", you can probably give up. Otherwise, it may suggest a direction to go in.
-- g
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