The Joy of X
The Joy of X – by Steven Strogatz We carry a common myth that most of the Math that is being taught in the schools and colleges is useless. But that’s not true. Math was formulated to satisfy the needs of previous centuries and is now used to handle the modern technologies.The way math was formulated and is being used is meticulously answered in this book by Steven in an interesting way that truly connects practical life. Why sum of the n odd natural numbers is n 2 ? 1 + 3 = 2 2 , 1 + 3 + 5 =3 2 and 1+ 3 + 5 = 4 2 …and so on Why is the sum of n natural numbers n(n+1)/2? 1+2 +3 + 4 is? Put white marbles on the floor in the given order. 1, then 2, then 3 and then 4. Now make a rectangle by adding black marbles. Now it becomes a rectangle of four rows and five columns. (4 x 5). There are 20 marbles. So how many are white? Half of 20 = 10. Area of triangle is half of the area of rectangle. So n(n+1)/2. The enemy of...