JEFFREY BENNETT: MATH FOR LIFE

Tonight, Inquiry welcomes back JEFFREY BENNETT. He served as the first director of the Program in Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Sills at the University of Colorado. He holds a PhD in astrophysics and is the author of several books. His latest children’s book is titled THE WIZARD WHO SAVED THE WORLD is a wonderful science-based book that encourages young readers to get involved in mathematics, science and to help solve the world’s large scale problems. MATH FOR LIFE: CRUCIAL IDEAS YOU DIDN’T LEARN IN SCHOOL is a book for adult math phobics and math loathers. It is Bennett’s contention that we are simply not taught the math we actually need to know to get by as adults: how to figure taxes, understanding statistics we read about in newspapers, how to plan a budget and how to understand the national debt. All these topics involve mathematics, and we need to understand them in adult everyday life, but typically all we are taught in school is about quadratic equations and trigonometry. Tune in tonight and learn about what math we need not the math we are taught.