DoodleMom's Homeschooling Life

Wildberger’s Wonders Making Math Connections

IMAG0473Prof. N J Wildberger at the University of New South Wales in Australia is another of the great mathematicians who can explain math in a fundamentally universal way, like Vi Hart and Marcus du Sautoy.

Wildberger has placed many of his lectures on YouTube. This is a great source for learning the history of math, as well as for gaining a real understanding the derivations of many properties in math. His history of math lecture series is great for any child with a strong attention span who understands elementary math and beginning algebra.

As an example, Wildberger explains in his first lecture on the history of math how Pythagoras derived the original Pythagorian formula, why the Greeks thought in area and not length, and how to derive the relationship easily. Many math curricula are focused on memorization of formulae and relationships. It is important, for my own children, to understand math and not just memorize properties. And Wildberger is teaching them just that.

His videos include:

 

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