The Latest Breaking News from Math

The model of democracy in the 1920s is sometimes called “the melting pot” – the dissolution of different cultures into an American soup. An update for the 2020s might be “open source,” where cultural mixing, sharing and collaborating can build bridges between people rather than create divides.

In math class, you probably learned how to compute the area of lots of different shapes by memorizing algebraic formulas. Remember “base x height” for rectangles and “½ base x height” for triangles? Or “𝜋 x radius²” for circles?

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

There is a scene in the film Incredibles 2 where young Dash asks his dad Bob for help with his maths homework. Bob obliges and begins to scribble on a notepad. But Dash quickly points to his textbook and says, “that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it, Dad”.