I can't believe I'm writing about math. Wait—let me amend that. I can't believe I'm writing good things about math!
I'm writing a short story that involves math (don't ask) and so I borrowed a copy of Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail by actress/mathematician Danica McKellar, hoping to find some easy-to-understand inspiration for my character. While I stopped short of actually working out the problems in the book, I read the entire thing. How could I help it? Here I am, a jewelry designer, and the very first sentence of the first chapter is:
Have you ever made a friendship bracelet?
And then she goes right into an example of prime numbers using 16 onyx beads and 8 jade beads, showing all the different patterns you could create.
How could I resist?
I loved the real-world problems that showed how you could use math in everyday life. How many cute videos of your puppy can you save? How much moisturizer do you need to pack for your trip? Plus, she has some pretty cute mnemonics that while you might find them annoying actually do help you remember tricky things like which part of the problem is the divisor and which is the dividend. (That mnemonic involves a little drawing involving a dog named Sparky, a steak, and a person who is hopefully the dog's owner and not just a weirdo hanging out on the roof of a house, though to be honest, her character is never fully explored.)
Danica actually makes math seem fun. Really. I finished the book wondering why I didn't major in math in college. This was the book I needed in junior high. Too bad for me that while I was weeping over my algebra book, Danica had not even started her role as Winnie on The Wonder Years then, let alone majored in mathematics at UCLA.
Now if she could just finish my short story for me, I'd be all set.