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© ATM 2010 • No reproduction (including Internet) except for legitimate academic purposes • copyright@atm.org.uk for permissions.
REVIEWS Straight from the
book
Bjørn Smestad
The Man Who Loved Only
Numbers
Paul Hoffman
Is mathematics a dry and boring
subject consisting of incomprehensible
symbols or ‘a search for lasting beauty
and ultimate truth’ that is worth dedi-
cating your life to? Some of your pupils
may think the former, while Paul Erdös
thought the latter. Perhaps it’s an idea
to let your pupils meet Paul Erdös?
Paul Hoffman’s book is a warm,
humorous and well-written biography
of Paul Erdös, a prolific mathematician
who travelled around the world, always
pushing his colleagues to do their very
best. He did not care for possessions,
for women or for food, carrying with
him the little he owned, using benze-
drine to be able to spend as many hours
a day as possible on mathematics. He
developed his own vocabulary, with
words such as ‘bosses’ (women), ‘slaves’
(men), ‘noise’ (music), ‘poison’
(alcohol) etc.
Is this the kind of image we want
people to have of mathematicians?
Perhaps not, which is why it is nice
that Hoffman also shows us other
mathematicians, such as Erdös’ close
friend Ron Graham. Graham is living
an ‘ordinary life’ – he is married, has
children, is interested in trampolines
and juggling – he just happens to be a
very good mathematician. In addition,
several other mathematicians are
described, such as Cantor, Ramanujan,
Frege and Sophie Germain. The
human interest of some of the stories
are evident, such as people who
committed suicide because they did
not think that they could do any more
mathematics, or people who wanted to
commit suicide, but were delayed by a
fascinating mathematical problem. The
different stories tell us that mathe-
maticians come in all shapes and sizes.
But more importantly, Hoffman
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gives us a glimpse of what the , ‘math-
ematical society’ is like. Often
mathematicians are portrayed as lonely
geniuses, working in solitude. While
that is sometimes the case (Andrew
Wiles being a recent example), more
often mathematics is a group activity.
Erdös is an extreme example of this –
his help to other mathematicians is
perhaps as important as the mathe-
matics he did himself. The concept of
‘Erdös number’ is a celebration of
Erdös’ collaborations: every mathe-
matician who has written a paper with
Erdös has Erdös number 1, those who
have written a paper with someone
with Erdös number 1 has Erdös
number 2 etc. According to Hoffman,
485 mathematicians are lucky enough
to have Erdös number 1.
Interwoven with the story of Paul
Erdös’ life are ‘highlights’ from the
history of mathematics – many of
which are understandable (and intrigu-
ing) for K-12 pupils. Some examples:
prime numbers, unit fractions,
Fibonacci numbers, the travelling
salesman problem, π , e, negative
numbers and Fermat’s theorems.
Other topics are perhaps not so suited
for classroom use at this level, but may
be interesting for the teacher anyway,
such as calculus, infinite series,
countable and uncountable infinity,
Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and
transcendental numbers.
One particularly interesting topic
(to this reviewer) is Ramsey theory.
One simple Ramsey problem is ‘What
is the minimum number of guests that
need to be invited so that either at
least three guests will all know each
other or at least three will be mutual
strangers?’ Some pupils will be able to
solve this problem, which makes it
almost incomprehensible that the same
problem with ‘three’ changed to ‘five’
is still unsolved. By seeing unsolved
problems, the reader may also realize
that mathematics is not a ‘finished’
science, but is still ‘under construction’.
Some pupils may even make up their
mind to contribute to this construction.
Hoffman also gives a lot of amusing
anecdotes, such as the story about the
MATHEMATICS TEACHING 175 / JUNE 2001
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© ATM 2010 • No reproduction (including Internet) except for legitimate academic purposes • copyright@atm.org.uk for permissions.
‘Happy end problem’ – the problem is
not yet solved, but progress is made
mainly by couples in love. A warning
note should perhaps be attached,
though: not all of the anecdotes are
historical facts. For instance, it is not a
historical fact that Archimedes was
killed by a Roman soldier after
exclaiming, “Don’t step on my
circles!” – but it’s still a nice story.
Why should we study mathemat-
ics? Of course mathematics plays an
important part in our society, but we
must not forget that many people
(adults and children) also find mathe-
matics fascinating because of its order
and beauty – and the attraction of
being able to prove things. We must
not hide this aspect of mathematics
from our pupils. To quote Hoffman:
“For Erdös, Graham, and their
colleagues, mathematics is order and
beauty at its purest, order that tran-
scends the physical world”. And Joel
Spencer: “Erdös has made me and
other mathematicians recognize the
importance of what we do.
Mathematics is there. It’s beautiful.
It’s this jewel we uncover.” While this
notion is highly problematic for this
reviewer (who believes in social
constructivism, not in Platonism), it is
still a point of view which has inspired
people, and might do so again.
A final anecdote on Erdös: He was
to have a corneal transplant, and asked
his doctor “Will I be able to read?”
“Yes,” said the doctor. “That’s the
whole point of the surgery.” When the
operation was about to start and the
lights were dimmed, Erdös immedi-
ately got agitated. “Why are you
turning the lights down?” “So we can
do the surgery, “ answered the doctor.
“But you said I’d be able to read.” The
operation went smoothly as soon as
the hospital managed to get a mathe-
matician to sit by Erdös and talk
mathematics with him during the
surgery.
I have tried to show that this book
The man who loved only is an important book for teachers to
numbers, Paul Hoffman, read. But the main reason for reading
Fourth Estate, ISBN
it remains that it is thoroughly enter-
1857028112 301pp,
£12.99 (hardback) taining.
MATHEMATICS TEACHING 175 / JUNE 2001
Academic copyright permission does NOT extend to publishing on Internet or similar system. Provide link ONLY
A mathematical
adventure
Martyn Dranfield Y8 pupil
The Number Devil
By Hans Magnus
Enzensberger
The number devil is a great book
adding fun to simple maths ideas The number devil, Hans
which are used during school lessons. Magnus Enzensberger,
Granta Books,
The story starts with a boy called ISBN 1-86207-391-0
Robert who is always dreaming, but 260pp, £12 (paperback)
with most dreams ending as a
nightmare. As days pass his nightmares
keep coming until one night he meets
‘The Number Devil.’
The Number Devil guides Robert
through the complex and easy sides of
maths (unfortunately words are
changed as he goes, for example,
‘Prime Numbers’ become ‘Prima-
Donna Numbers.’ I found this
confusing and slightly irritating. But
many shortcuts of mathematics are
learned on the way through this
adventure.
The Number Devil was a great
read and should be read by all, this
isn’t another ‘maths book’.
I rate it at 4/5, losing its 5th mark
because of the confusing ‘made up’
language.
I really learnt a few maths tricks
and thoroughly enjoyed it.
A school teaching
system
Geoff Dunn
Headstart GCSE
Mathematics
One of the challenges for teachers at
Key Stage 4 is to find fresh approaches
for GCSE preparation and revision.
Combine this with immediate feedback
on strengths and weaknesses, up-to-
date records of progress and
achievement, setting up individual
work-plans with ease and knowing
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© ATM 2010 • No reproduction (including Internet) except for legitimate academic purposes • copyright@atm.org.uk for permissions.
that the level of difficulty is appropriate
sounds like utopia but it is what this
software does. On top of this there is
no marking or teacher recording.
So what is it exactly? You can find
full details at
www.headstartsoftware.co.uk but an
outline is:
A students’ module – the mathe-
matical content is arranged in the old
attainment targets split into quite
accurate levels 6 to 10 and is presented
in a way that motivates students and
retains their interest. It also provides
tutorials, tests and encouragement to
students to explore mathematics in a
dynamic way. The most popular area is
the lab! The student module is also
available separately on CD.
A teacher management module
that provides control and tools for
departments to monitor and assign
staff and students to classes allowing
individual or group programmes of
study (workplans) to be targeted,
created and set. The students’ work is
recorded and assessed electronically.
You should be able to integrate its use
into any scheme of work that you are
currently developing.
It is called an independent
learning system, which frankly, put me
off when I was first introduced to it.
However I have found that it is very
difficult to use badly. Even with minimal
teacher direction and input students
can explore and investigate the syllabus
and tutorials and have fun in the labo-
ratory, but used with whole class well
directed interactive teaching it becomes
a very rich resource allowing lesson
preparation to be a creative activity.
It has been used successfully in
improving percentage grade A*-C
passes. Just set up level 6/7 workplans
for grade C/D borderline pupils in
Y11, track individual achievement and
progress in great detail, encourage self
assessment, reporting and recording
using the clear evidence that is
generated by the software. Discuss
predictions and targets and areas for
improvement using this data. It’s quite
simple and it works.
There is plenty of support (technical
and developmental) available, ‘user
46
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groups’ are being set up to encourage Headstart Software Ltd.,
sharing of expertise; high quality Vauxhall Industrial Estate,
Ruabon, Wrexham LL14
lessons plans are already available. This 6AH
should be led and promoted through a Standalone CD £29.95
new web based resource. Network version £6995
Over 500 UK secondary schools are including installation,
training and a full site
using it and I’m not surprised. I’m not licence
sure that I could manage without it!
LETTERS
A numeracy strategy
for KS4?
I was sitting in my living room after a
hard day at school and reading one of
my favourite magazines. MT is full of
articles by people just like me. People
who enjoy mathematics and teaching.
This made me decide to write to you.
I have been teaching for nearly
three years now all of them in the
lovely county of Essex, even though I
trained at Cambridge University. I
teach the whole 11-18 range and have
enjoyed the variety of mathematics I
get to cover week in week out. I espe-
cially love teaching post-16 (AS and A’
level) as I really get to show my enthu-
siasm and passion for what is the
greatest subject in the universe. It has
so many applications and my job is to
help my students understand the
‘basics’ and see the intrigue and wonder
of the subject. Hopefully continuing to
learn more and more mathematics as
they progress through life.
I feel that the government is
helping this by the introduction of the
numeracy framework into secondary
schools. My wife is a primary school
teacher and through her work and one
of my responsibilities within the maths
department, I have seen and discussed
some of the best numeracy lessons I
will probably ever see. I feel that the
strategy has enabled students to engage
with the mathematics, looking at its
structures in more depth and being
able to question their own mathemati-
cal development.
The mental arithmetic of students
has increased substantially and this has
enabled them to become more adjusted
to society and the vast uses of mathe-
matics within everyday life.
MATHEMATICS TEACHING 175 / JUNE 2001
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