Cocktail Party Mathematics: Fun Ways to Master Math and Be the Life of the Party – Really!

COCKTAIL PARTY MATHEMATICS: Fun Ways to Master Math and Be the Life of the Party – Really!

Copyright © by Amir Pirnazar, PhD

Published by Station Square Media

115 East 23rd Street, 3rd Floor

New York, NY 10010

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in articles and reviews.

Production Management: Write to Sell Your Book, LLC

Copyeditor: Cristina Schreil

Cover and Interior Design: Steven Plummer, SPBookDesign

Illustrations: Inktobook.com

Printed in the United States of America for Worldwide Distribution.

ISBN: 978-1-7332375-0-5

Electronic editions:

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-7332375-1-2

EPUB ISBN: 978-1-7332375-2-9

First Edition

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 - Love Equation

2 - Pick a Number

3 - Four Triangles

4 - Drawing Connections

5 - Lottery Trap

6 - Are you Getting Paid Enough

7 - Common Cents

8 - It It Worth Getting Help With Chores

9 - Doubling Your Money in Half the Time

10 - Pigeonholed!

11 - Birthday Bash

12 - March Madness

13 - Wild Coats

14 - Adding Like a Prodigy

15 - It Takes All Sorts

16 - Pick a Number, Any Number

17 - Multiplication Shortcuts

18 - Crossing Bridges

19 - Prime Cuts

20 - How About a Piece of Pi?

21 - The Incompleteness of Mathematics

Appendix

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the students that have had some kind of difficulty with or fear of mathematics with the hope that after reading this book, they will see mathematics in a friendly light and all their fears will have disappeared.

Introduction

Hello, bonjour, hola, ola, salaam, buongiorno, shalom, guten tag, marhaban, namaste, kon’nichiwa, zdravstvuyte, ni hao, szia, yassou!

I’m glad that you’ve chosen to crack open this book; I’m hopeful you’ll be so enchanted with it you’ll take it right over to the checkout stand. As to why you should, well . . .

Having been in the field of mathematics for over thirty years now, it’s been my experience that there’s not one interesting book that reaches out to the average person and tries to open up his or her mind to the joy of math—to how certain tricks and tips can be fun, even useful.

Deciding to take a stab at this book wasn’t easy, but it’s been rattling around in my skull since the moment it struck me. In my opinion, too many people have a fear of mathematics, especially in the United States. Why is that? Math deserves better, it whispered—and I hope I’ve provided enough to take your fear away.

My goal is to make sure that you, dear reader, can read and understand everything in this book—whether you’ve just gotten out of middle school or are enjoying your retirement.

Unfortunately, math has long held this stigma as being something that either you’re terribly intelligent and should automatically get, or—well, flip that around.

The truth couldn’t be farther off; math, when explained well, should be simple and elegant. You should be able to digest and repeat the exercises in this book, if I’ve done my job and explained them well.

So: What does it mean to think mathematically?

Now that I’ve got your attention, and you’ve hopefully taken this book and curled up somewhere a little more comfortable, let’s talk about math some more.

It’s a common misconception that math is sterile, and logic is sterile, and both are creatively sterile. You and I both know better, however; that sort of thinking is often pushed by the sort of people who are terrified of folks like you reading books like this, and turning over a new leaf into the world of math and logic.

Both are joined at the hip, and incredibly creative at their core. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a level of technical skill needed in the field—there is, and I won’t be teaching you that . . . at least not in this book.

What I will be helping you with is how to understand the beauty, utility, and creativity of math—how to have fun with your theorems, and open up your eyes to new ways to use them in your day-to-day life.

And that starts here, in this introduction. The essence of math is about attack—about systematically probing new issues and finding new ways around old problems. Honing your mind and being constantly curious can help in everything you do—to say nothing of math itself!

For those of you reading this in the US, you’re probably aware that we don’t always do so well when it comes to hard math and science fields, especially at the high-school level.

It’s my opinion that this issue builds up in the back of our heads, over time. Math is difficult, so many of us stop trying.

Have you ever looked at a problem posed by a friend or in a textbook, and felt like your brain was melting?

Have you ever felt like you should understand it, but don’t?

Have you ever felt embarrassed or humiliated and just gave up on trying?

That’s a failure of how you were taught and who taught you. You cannot understand a problem without also understanding the language with which it’s taught. Imagine if this text were in another language, one you aren’t fluent in.

It’d be a bit of a stumper, wouldn’t it?

But, society expects you to understand these stumpers regularly, even when you’ve had an incomplete crash course in the language with which they’re taught.

I don’t want you to see strange symbols and think of alchemy, rocket science, and the lost continent of Mu. I want you to see problems that, even if you don’t understand, you feel like you could understand, and, with enough time, figure out—and solve.

To that end, this book is going to try to show you how—in friendly, easy-to-understand language—you can decipher the peculiarities of math and make something of them.

By the end, if I can reinforce your own confidence, so that you rely on your own clever ideas and hunches, then I think we’ll have succeeded well. And if you’ve had as much fun as I have, and maybe even learned to enjoy mathematics, how could I be any happier?

But, getting there is a journey, even though I’m hoping it’s one you’ll find as leisurely as a tropical getaway. The goal? Simple. I want you to be able to understand all the problems and solutions presented in these pages, entirely on your own power.

That way, when you’re presented with a similar problem, a light bulb will go off in the back of your brain, you’ll jump up and shout Eureka! and have the tools you’ll need to solve it—even if it’s not one of the problems you’ve faced in this book.

Hopefully, any fears and concerns about math you’ve held onto (consciously or subconsciously) will dissipate and fade away, replaced by a greater curiosity towards the world of math.

Not that I’m trying to push you into a career in mathematics!

It’s just that it feels great to overcome something that used to hold you back, and solving a logical problem—those mysteries that keep cropping up at the back of our minds—is an incredibly satisfying experience.

Albert