Mathsemantics: Making Numbers Talk Sense

An entertaining, anecdotal elucidation of math shows readers how numbers have inherent semantic content and attempts to cure readers of math blocks acquired in school. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo.

What is the sum of two apples and three oranges? (Answer: five fruit). Round off .098 to the nearest whole number. (Answer: zero). These math problems, and the inability of many people to solve them, reflect semantic presumptions embedded in our language, according to MacNeal, a business consultant to the airline industry. In this anecdotal, sporadically illuminating book, he deflates dubious statistics, exposes pitfalls in surveys, punches holes in accountants' reports and offers advice to math teachers. MacNeal pinpoints mathematical or logical errors commonly made by travelers, market analysts, students and others--errors that he believes may be due to the adult's retention of the child's tendency to confuse words with the things that words represent. Appendices include problems as well as recruitment quizzes for secretaries, clerical workers and lawyers.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Books like John Paulos's Innumeracy ( LJ 5/1/89) have demonstrated that many people don't understand numbers. MacNeal asks "why not?" and comes up with fascinating and helpful insights. He believes the problem is not so much an inability to do calculations as a semantic problem of naming the things you count. Thus, adding two apples and five oranges you get seven pieces of fruit, refuting the claim that "you can't add apples and oranges." Evidence from Jean Piaget's studies of children's language and from a math quiz that was given to job applicants at MacNeal's consulting business show how semantic mistakes lead to numerical errors (and also why people have so much difficulty solving story problems). This sounds very academic, but it's written in a friendly, personal style and offers eye-opening, practical advice on how to communicate numerically. A good antidote to innumeracy.
- Amy Brunvand, Fort Lewis Coll. Lib., Durango, Col.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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