What an incredible couple of weeks I have had! It took a lot of learning and time to get my new book, MATHABET, ready for publishing by my self-imposed deadline, and I did it! It went live on October 1 and I’m so excited for you to get your hands on it.
When I say MATHABET is a companion to this season of the podcast, what I mean is it was born out of the idea of our journey through the alphabet, math style, but the format is completely different. For the past year or so, the blog posts here have been modified transcripts of the podcast episodes, so if you prefer to read instead of listen, or if you want to quickly find something you heard without listening to the entire episode, it’s there for you.
{This is a modified transcript for Episode 39 of the I See Math People podcast. To listen instead, click here.}
The book cuts out all the extra talk. Each letter has its own section and in each section I lay out a few mathematical ideas you might encounter in your daily life in an easy to read format. I give a definition in plain English, a few common places you might use it, and a couple ways you might interact with it and not realize it’s connected to math. There’s also a chance to reflect on where you might interact with the ideas so you can start to notice where math is really showing up for you.
Because, as with the podcast, my goal for the book is to redefine what it takes to be a math person and encourage you to increase your awareness of where math shows up for you, so you can start seeing yourself as a math person.
I know. You think you have never been and will never be a math person. And you’ve spent years and years collecting all kinds of evidence to support that belief. That’s because we see things not the way they are, but the way we believe. There’s actually a part of your brain that filters for things that match your beliefs, so you mostly see what you look for.
Decide you want a bright green car? You’ll start seeing bright green cars everywhere.
Believe that people are inherently good? You see the good all around you.
It works the other way, too. When you believe you are not a math person, you will notice all the ways you aren’t good at math and you will avoid situations that require math.
In order to change a belief, you have to increase awareness of the things that match what you want to see. Want to see yourself as a math person? Start by noticing all the ways you use mathematical thinking. Bonus points if you take a moment to celebrate that what you are doing makes you a math person.
I hope you’ll check out MATHABET, and even share it with someone you know who needs it. You can find it here!
Now, how about we continue this journey through the mathabet. This week, we are talking about a few ideas beginning with the letter U.
Unit & Unit Rate
Unit is a word that means one of something. You rent a storage unit when you run out of space in your home. We sometimes talk about teams working together as a unit, meaning they function as one instead of individuals.
Unit is also used to describe what you are measuring with. Tablespoons, cups, and gallons for example, are units of measure for volume. Inches, feet, and miles are units of measure for length or distance.
A related mathematical idea is a unit rate. We talked a bit about rates back in this post, when we talked about ideas that begin with R. A rate is a comparison of two related values or quantities, usually with different units, like dollars and gallons. A unit rate is a rate that has been simplified to compare a value to one unit of something.
So, your speedometer tells you how many miles you can travel in one hour and the sign at the gas station tells you the cost of one gallon. When you shop at the grocery store, you look at the unit rates to compare cost per pound or per ounce. Your paycheck is a based on a unit rate…dollars per hour worked.
You interact with units anytime you measure anything and you encounter unit rates in a variety of contexts every day. This makes you a math person.
Unknown
The last idea for today is the idea of an unknown. An unknown is a piece of information that you don’t know. In algebra class, the unknown value in a problem might have been represented by x or by another letter. It’s a stand in for the unknown value you were solving for.
In real life, you encounter unknowns everywhere. Anytime you ask a question, you are thinking about a piece of information you don’t yet have or know. Does this have to be math or number related? Not at all. Can it be? Absolutely.
Like when you want to know how much money will be left in your bank account after you buy new shoes for your child. You subtract to find that unknown value. I could give you more examples, but I think you get the idea. Any time you are asking a question, solving a problem, or finding a value, you are looking to define an unknown. And this makes you a math person.
I’m so glad you joined the conversation today! I’m on a mission to change the way the world sees math, beginning with you. If you found value in this episode, if something you heard made you pause, or if you suddenly realized the hidden math in something you do every day, now is your chance to join the movement!
When you comment here and share this site, or when you subscribe to, rate, and share the I See Math People podcast, the algorithms will show it to more people and the more people who get the message, the more mindsets can begin to shift.
Thank you for being part of this discussion of a few of the mathematical concepts beginning with the letter U. I truly hope you heard something about units, unit rates, and unknowns you can relate to and that it made you stop and think about where math shows up for you on a daily basis. Noticing where you interact with math is the first step to beginning your mindset shift and seeing yourself as the math person you really are.
I’m Jennifer Mason Hardin and everywhere I look I see math people just like you.
