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Mathsemantics: Making Numbers Talk Sense Paperback – March 1, 1995

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Edward MacNeal (Author)
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Edward MacNeal (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars 13 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (March 1, 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140234861
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140234862
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,104,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Mathsemantics -- a major contribution to matheducation
By John Gough on May 7, 2000
Format: Hardcover
Review: Edward MacNeal Mathsemantics: Making Numbers Talk Sense Penguin; 1994 ISBN 0 14 023486 1 (24 chapters, Tests, References and Index!; 310 pages)
[From Prime Number (Mathematical Assocation of Victoria, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia) vol. 11, no. 2, 1996, p. 13)
Mathsemantics, like John Allen Paulos's stimulating Innumeracy (Penguin, 1988, about dealing comfortably with fundamental notions of number and chance), is easy to read, challenging, fascinating, and might change the way you teach and the way you think about teaching. Edward MacNeal discusses the connection between mathematics and the purpose and meaning of mathematics. According to MacNeal, many students experience difficulty because of confusion between formal mathematics and what the mathematics means, between the written symbols and the translated prose and the ideas they both represent. These examples of similar words have dramatically different mathematical meanings: "5 less than 10" is 5, while "5 less 10" is -5; "6 divided by 2" is 3, whereas "6 divided into 2" is one-third, yet "6 divided into 2 equal parts" is in fact 3 (pp 89 - 90). To resolve such confusion we need "mathsemantics" to make mathematics meaningful, and show how language can work mathematically.
MacNeal's discussion arises from the results of test questions uses to screen adult job-applicants on the basis of their ability to use mathematics and to think about what they are doing.
MacNeal describes three vivid lessons. When he was about six years old, his accountant father challenged MacNeal and his brother to write whole numbers in sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, ..., offering a dollar for each number that had only a 1 following by zeros.Read more ›
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Educational and Entertaining.
By Phil on July 15, 2001
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
MacNeal makes a strong case that a proper understanding of mathematics requires thinking skills that our schools have not yet even identified. The author fills this book with examples of basic mistakes that "educated" people often make when using or even talking about numbers.
MacNeal argues convincingly that using mathematics properly goes far beyond being able to manipulate numbers. Mathematics is a language that helps us understand the real world. Divorcing this language from spoken languages, such as English, fails to teach students how to use and think about issues that relate to mathematics. (And that certainly includes a multitude of topics!)
"Mathsemantics" also provides a practical method of learning to make estimates. The author provides many examples of how to use information that we do have to make reasonable estimates regarding information that is unavaialable to us.
If I were a high school or college instructor...of almost any subject...I would (easily) find a way to make "Mathsemantics" required, relevant reading. This book provides so much more value than most of the "best-selling" books that you will read and hear about.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Common Sense on an Uncommon Topic
By H. M. Rothman on October 29, 2003
Format: Hardcover
The author is "an expert" - someone who knows something and can explain it to and/or use it for those who can't - or just don't - on their own.
I am a high school math teacher and community college and high school computer teacher. MacNeal THRILLED me with his insight into something that may be part of the problem with education the way we do it. Look for his connection of Piaget's work on the development of children's and adults' abilities through necessary stages with the Chinese language and with the teaching of math.
I have had more successes with some of my students because of MacNeal and his book.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Deserves to be more widely known
By Steve and/or Jodene on August 10, 2003
Format: Hardcover
This is one of my favorite books of its kind. It deserves a place on the shelf next to Paulos's _Innumeracy_. _Mathsemantics_ is a highly readable, insightful, conversational, anecdotal, fascinating discussion of the ways people apply (or fail to apply, or misapply) mathematical thinking to real world situations, and why they have trouble mixing math and language.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A truly superb book!
By Tim Huff on April 6, 2005
Format: Paperback
I teach British literature and love Scott, Austen, Wodehouse, and Hardy. I thouroughly enjoy the murders mysteries of Rex Stout and Dorothy Sayers. So why am I reviewing a book about math? Because it is one of the finest books I have ever read.

This book bridges the gap between the right and left brains. While its subject matter includes some advanced concepts, they are expressed so articulately that they are accessible to virtually everyone.

This is not a book for educators or students alone. Everyone should read it.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
worthy
By A Customer on June 25, 2001
Format: Paperback
I enjoyed this book. It's humorous, and addresses how humans learn, not how teachers would like them to learn. It's compared to Paulos' INNUMERACY, but it doesn't have Paulos' arrogance and condescension. I enjoyed that, too, so consider this a good companion book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A confabulation of math, words, analysis, & puzzles.
By A Customer on October 25, 1997
Format: Hardcover
This book is a treat for anyone interested in math, words, analysis, and problem solving. Analysis is an art, and the author shows how numbers and words can present or hide the problem.
The author builds the book around a set of problems he collected or invented over 20 years to help him hire people to work in his business. The problems turn out to be arenas where common sense does battle with dumb rules ("you can't add apples and oranges") and the art of definition (a passenger, a trip, a ticket, a traveler, and an airplane seat are different entities).
This is also a funny book! The problems are interesting and concrete. The book is structured, too, so the reader easily gets a chance to hack away at the problem, and also see how other folks have done solving the problem over the last 20 years. (The explantions some folks give to explain their answers are sometimes screamingly funny, but always interesting.)
This book is a fun read. It would also make a great companion text in a high school or college math or analysis course.
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