Chapter 1: Is it too early?
It is too early to introduce my precious brats to my first love. It is time, however, for brat #1 to get to know my boy next door.
It is too early to introduce my precious brats to my first love. It is time, however, for brat #1 to get to know my boy next door.
Yes, he helps you make tea, pack suitcases, build boomerangs, count beads, knit, read music, resist buying that lottery ticket, and scores of other things. However, I came to know him better than that. I learnt that behind his helpful and sincere demeanor, lay a complex person full of poetry and beauty, with a Greek god body to match.
Is it too early for a child of but 9 years to be introduced to this complex and beautiful side of him?
Chapter 2: Keep an open mind
I sometimes wonder if I met him too late. With a father and a brother who hung around him most of the time, it was hard not to get to know him, like him, and maybe flirt with him a bit. But, it did not happen till I had already fallen in love, and I am a faithful sort of girl.
[Well, I did not marry my first love, but I never did love another the same way.]
Which brings me to Brat #1. I am not trying to set her up with the man. He seems to look better as he grows older, in a Sean Connery sort of way, which does not change the fact that he is old. She is still young, innocent, and has a lot of choices. And, honestly, I am not sure I really want her married to a poet. Poets often can't pay the bills. Yet, it would be a shame, if you never knew a poet.
Besides, she is too young for us to be thinking about marriage. It is the 21st century, not the 16th. So, don't let your imagination run too wild.
Besides, she is too young for us to be thinking about marriage. It is the 21st century, not the 16th. So, don't let your imagination run too wild.
Chapter 3: Who is he?
He is Fact. He is Abstract. And sometimes, he is Daft.
He is Math.
So, while we all know that numbers are 0,1,2,3,...; he needs big books to understand them, and calls them a set of countably infinite elements with ...[and I need special software to write his squiggles so I will stop].
Chapter 4: The first encounter
We were in the car, at an intersection, and that is how it started. I asked Brat#1 if she knew what the word intersection meant. She knew one meaning. Then I asked her if she knew what a set was. She didn't. So, I explained that it is a collection of objects. We spent some time making up sets. A set of Brat#2's teddy bear, the number 2, and the color red. A set of 2 blue cars, a traffic signal, and the brats.
Then I asked her if she knew what an intersection of two sets might mean. She guessed it pretty quickly. So, I asked her if she knew what the union of two sets might mean. She had never heard of union, but after a few trials, she hit on the right answer. I then asked her if she knew that sets are a very powerful concept, and that one can think of numbers as just a set with some properties. That just zoomed past her. So, I backed up a bit.
I said, what if you want to tell someone about numbers, but you cannot give them any examples. You cannot show them 2 bananas, 2 bicycles, 2 claps, 2 jumps, 2 steps, 2 ears, 2 words, 2 stomps. How do you explain numbers? She tried, and then caught herself giving examples. She tried again and caught herself giving an example again.
I told her that math is all about these sorts of useless, poetic exercises, and that is what thatha is writing about in his book.
By this time, patidev was also interested. He wanted to know if the number set had a concept of sequence. It is always good when others get interested, as the brats, even if they don't understand anything, know that it is something that could be exciting and interesting. It is also a good time to "leave on a high note" as George Costanza would say.
Chapter 5: The second date
This encounter was not just deliberate, it was choreographed with thatha's help.
We were at the dinner table, and I asked Brat#1 if she remembered how numbers could just be objects with some properties that you can define on them, that we would call addition and multiplication. Then I told her that I was going to define numbers as a set of lines. I was also going to define addition in a special way. The sum of lineA and lineB is the diagonal of the rectangle formed with sides of the same length as lineA and lineB.
Then I gave her a few rectangles to draw and measure. Now I asked her if my addition was also commutative like the number addition she knew. It was. Then I showed her how she could add three lines, by adding two first and then adding the third to the sum. She did a few of those problems. That was the end of the lesson.
But choreographed events never go as planned. So, she asked, "What if I don't want to add two lines and then the third to it. What if I want to add all three lines together?" I looked at her blankly. She explained how if she wanted to add 2 apples, 3 apples and 4 apples, she could always put them all together and count, and she did not have to add two first.
So, I showed her how she could make a cuboid with three lines and calculate the diagonal. Then I asked her if adding three lines together gave the same answer as adding two first and then the third. It was hard to measure in 3D - but with some help, she did, and we established they were the same. Now, I asked if she could calculate the diagonal of a 4D cuboid. There is no 4th dimension she said. Yes, but if one had to imagine there was one, would she be able to calculate the diagonal from the sides. Yes.
That is what thatha does. He thinks about things that do not exist. Like a 4D cuboid.
I don't know how much the brats understand from my various such lessons - but they sure seem to enjoy these sessions as much as I do, and they think their mom is the craziest living person.
He is Fact. He is Abstract. And sometimes, he is Daft.
He is Math.
So, while we all know that numbers are 0,1,2,3,...; he needs big books to understand them, and calls them a set of countably infinite elements with ...[and I need special software to write his squiggles so I will stop].
Chapter 4: The first encounter
We were in the car, at an intersection, and that is how it started. I asked Brat#1 if she knew what the word intersection meant. She knew one meaning. Then I asked her if she knew what a set was. She didn't. So, I explained that it is a collection of objects. We spent some time making up sets. A set of Brat#2's teddy bear, the number 2, and the color red. A set of 2 blue cars, a traffic signal, and the brats.
Then I asked her if she knew what an intersection of two sets might mean. She guessed it pretty quickly. So, I asked her if she knew what the union of two sets might mean. She had never heard of union, but after a few trials, she hit on the right answer. I then asked her if she knew that sets are a very powerful concept, and that one can think of numbers as just a set with some properties. That just zoomed past her. So, I backed up a bit.
I said, what if you want to tell someone about numbers, but you cannot give them any examples. You cannot show them 2 bananas, 2 bicycles, 2 claps, 2 jumps, 2 steps, 2 ears, 2 words, 2 stomps. How do you explain numbers? She tried, and then caught herself giving examples. She tried again and caught herself giving an example again.
I told her that math is all about these sorts of useless, poetic exercises, and that is what thatha is writing about in his book.
By this time, patidev was also interested. He wanted to know if the number set had a concept of sequence. It is always good when others get interested, as the brats, even if they don't understand anything, know that it is something that could be exciting and interesting. It is also a good time to "leave on a high note" as George Costanza would say.
Chapter 5: The second date
This encounter was not just deliberate, it was choreographed with thatha's help.
We were at the dinner table, and I asked Brat#1 if she remembered how numbers could just be objects with some properties that you can define on them, that we would call addition and multiplication. Then I told her that I was going to define numbers as a set of lines. I was also going to define addition in a special way. The sum of lineA and lineB is the diagonal of the rectangle formed with sides of the same length as lineA and lineB.
Then I gave her a few rectangles to draw and measure. Now I asked her if my addition was also commutative like the number addition she knew. It was. Then I showed her how she could add three lines, by adding two first and then adding the third to the sum. She did a few of those problems. That was the end of the lesson.
But choreographed events never go as planned. So, she asked, "What if I don't want to add two lines and then the third to it. What if I want to add all three lines together?" I looked at her blankly. She explained how if she wanted to add 2 apples, 3 apples and 4 apples, she could always put them all together and count, and she did not have to add two first.
So, I showed her how she could make a cuboid with three lines and calculate the diagonal. Then I asked her if adding three lines together gave the same answer as adding two first and then the third. It was hard to measure in 3D - but with some help, she did, and we established they were the same. Now, I asked if she could calculate the diagonal of a 4D cuboid. There is no 4th dimension she said. Yes, but if one had to imagine there was one, would she be able to calculate the diagonal from the sides. Yes.
That is what thatha does. He thinks about things that do not exist. Like a 4D cuboid.
I don't know how much the brats understand from my various such lessons - but they sure seem to enjoy these sessions as much as I do, and they think their mom is the craziest living person.
No comments:
Post a Comment