Mathsemantics: Making Numbers Talk Sense

Here is a whole new way of looking at math that liberates math phobes from their anxiety, enables business people to do their jobs more effectively, challenges and informs math buffs, and provides educators with the tools to teach math easily and effectively. How can it do all that? By reuniting numbers and meaning, two subjects that should never have been separated in the first place. Entertaining, anecdotal, and immensely practical, this extraordinary book offers a revolutionary way of looking at math as a language, something that we've all heard before but which has never made sense until now. Mathsemantics is that rare book that will change the way you look at the world—and provide the most sensible and inspiring answer yet to the problem of American innumeracy.

"Eye opening . . . a good antidote to innumeracy."—Library Journal

MacNeal is a mathematician determined to convert his specialty into general knowledge. The math that runs our computers, accounts for our wealth, tracks our customers, and monitors our political preferences cannot remain an undecipherable code for millions without creating perilous social and cultural tensions. Drawing on the semantic theories of Korzybski, Piaget, Hayakawa, and others, MacNeal translates the mute symbolism of mathematics into 29 disarmingly lucid propositions, each amply illustrated and explained. Proposition 25, for instance, asks readers to read estimates aloud before following a few simple principles to check for veracity. And Proposition 15--which comes with a fascinating digression on the history of Roman numerals--explains the danger of taking even the most fundamental calculation (two times two is four) as simply a memorized fact, not a verifiable process. MacNeal may not achieve the cultural transformation through mathsemantic literacy he hopes for, but his book will take the fear and mystery out of math for many. Bryce Christensen