Burn Math Class: And Reinvent Mathematics for Yourself

This is an interesting way to approach mathematics. Author Jason Wilkes wants to remedy the normal tedium and confusion of math teaching by walking readers through the process of inventing math, to show how math can be discovered and how it is connected – both to itself and to real life. His process turns mathematical study on its head, starting ‘from scratch’, and beginning with calculus, before moving to geometry and trigonometry. Of course this book can’t cover everything, but it covers a lot and gives you the tools to think about math differently – to make you want to discover more for yourself. The book is chatty and wordy, sometimes excessively so, but takes pains to make sure that all abstractions and symbols are understood and clear, written in prose. There is a running ‘screenplay’ where mathematics, anthropomorphized, interacts with the author and reader – again, this gets a little wordy but is a fun break from the math exploration. This is not elementary. It takes thought and work to work through, but it is accessible and friendly. It would be a great introductory text for high school level or above.