Winnie Wrote a Math Book

SoyChemist writes "Hollywood is not known for providing a wealth of positive female role models. Danica McKellar, the actress that played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years and Elsie Snuffin on The West Wing, has written a math book for teenage girls. 'Math Doesn't Suck' is done in the style of a teen magazine. It even includes a horoscope, cute doodles of shoes and jewelry, and testimonials from attractive young career women that use math at work. It focuses on fractions and pre-algebra and uses mnemonics like calling a reciprocal a 'refliprocal', because you just take the fraction and flip it upside down. Wired interviewed McKellar about the new book and her crusade to eliminate the achievement gap between boys and girls in math courses. McKellar graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA. While studying there, she co-authored a proof and presented it at a conference. After she and Mayim Bialik — star of Blossom and a PhD in neuroscience — appeared in a 20/20 episode about intellectual actresses, several literary agents came knocking on her door."

Barbie disagrees

[NJVil]

Back in 1994, Barbie thought differently.

Math is hard!

Yeah, I'll knock on her door, too

[Anonymous Coward]

But the judge says I'm not allowed within 100 feet of her.

Random bits from the book...

[grub]

"If the man of the house gets home from work at 5:30 and dinner takes 1.25 hours to prepare, at what time should you start making it?"

"If your makeup costs $40 and you put it on once a day, how much does it cost per application if the makeup runs out after 70 days?"

"If the cake recipe calls for the oven to be at 400 degree fahrenheit but the oven only has celsius....

Oh Boy...

[teknopurge]

It even includes a horoscope, cute doodles of shoes and jewelry, and testimonials from attractive young career women that use math at work. It focuses on fractions and pre-algebra and uses mnemonics like calling a reciprocal a 'refliprocal'

Time to put the plastic back on the Slashdot couches...

Re:Random bits from the book...

[Teifion]

Considering the target audience, those examples are just about right. I find that it's far easier to learn something when I can apply it to an everyday situation or at least something I am familiar with. If the rest of the examples are as good as those then the book seems very good. I find it odd that your post was modded Funny rather than Informative.

TTIWWP

[El_Smack]

This tread is worthless without pics... of hot, math using girls. /whaddaya mean, wrong website?

Re:Random bits from the book...

[happyemoticon]

1: Ideally, one should wait a half an hour to an hour after settling in to eat. Most people have rituals they go through upon getting home from work (petting the dog, sitting down and watching some television, having a martini), and after those are completed they will be amicable enough to properly enjoy dinner.

2: Surely this is an oversimplification of the problem. First, you need both day makeup and evening makeup (bolder colors to stand out more in lower light conditions), and you might only wear your evening makeup three or four times a week. Also, not all makeup goes with all outfits, or all occasions. But then again, I suppose it's like those spherical frictionless cows falling from the sky.

3: One must also account for the fact that some ovens have different characteristics than others. Oftentimes you need to adjust the actual temperature a bit to get the proper effect. I'm not sure of the physics behind it, but my oven needs to be turned down about 25 degrees from whatever the recipe says.

Re:Nice try, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Great point. Instead of writing a book, Winnie should have changed social norms in every high school in America.

Re:Random bits from the book...

[Otter]

I'm not sure of the physics behind it, but my oven needs to be turned down about 25 degrees from whatever the recipe says.

I'd guess that your thermostat is miscalibrated, Dr. Maxwell.

I'd let her extend MY superfactorial!

[cthellis]

I'd also generalize HER polylogarithm!

Re:Cyberchase

[MollyB]

> Her singing of its repetitive and insanely peppy themesong is driving my out of my mind, though.

Clearly so, but it could be worse: "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" is illustrative of subtraction, but somewhat tedious if one is not an actual red-eyed participant.

Re:Nice try, but...

[Just Some Guy]

What we really need is to have high schools that don't go out of their way to reinforce the perception that going to state for ****ball is the pinnacle of achievement.

OK, I'm dying to know: what sport at your high school is so unspeakably vulgar that you have to censor the name?

And are any videos online?

Re:"Attractive young women"

[Cervantes]

It even includes a horoscope, cute doodles of shoes and jewelry, and testimonials from attractive young career women that use math at work.

So what, the ugly ones don't use math?

Probably not as much, it's not like they need to worry about memorizing and reciting 7-digit numbers...

Um...

[Anonymous Coward]

'refliprocal'

...okay, that just made me dumber

Re:Random bits from the book...

[everphilski]

If the stove is white, what color shoes should you be wearing? :)

Re:Random bits from the book...

[everphilski]

My knobs are digital ...

Re:Barbie disagrees

[hal2814]

You should've seen what he thought back in 1944 [wikipedia.org].

Women scare what percentage of /.ers shitless?

[spun]

If 10% of all Slashdot accounts are current, and 25% of all posts relating to women in math and science are derogatory, what percentage of people that post to slashdot are going to get laid tonight?

Re:Barbie disagrees

[gatzke]

But is it NP-hard?

Re:Random bits from the book...

[anonicon]

Answers:

A. 4:15.
B. $0.5714285714 per application, or $0.57.
C. 204 celsius = 400 fahrenheit.

I am all woman.

Chuck

More apropos to modern women:

[monomania]

"If your ex-husband, who was earning $45k per year, looses his job but now collects 30% of that in unemployment, and your alimony was calculated at 67% of his net salary while employed, what differential (minus child-support) must now be applied in order that he may loose his other testical?"

Woah

[TheDarkener]

McKellar graduated Summa Cum Laude

I wish she graduated *my* summa cum laude!

Re:Women scare what percentage of /.ers shitless?

[Mercano]

Zero, but thats the answer any night.

Re:And what do horoscopes have to do with science?

[kryten_nl]

If you don't, then stop talking about things you know nothing about.

The stars say: "you must be new here".

Re:Women scare what percentage of /.ers shitless?

[Anonymous Coward]

>If 10% of all Slashdot accounts are current, and 25% of all posts relating to women in math and science are derogatory, what percentage of people that post to slashdot are going to get laid tonight?

Trick question: the answer is always zero.

Re:Barbie disagrees

[Penguinisto]

Back in 1994, Barbie thought differently.

Math is hard!

...only for sufficient values of "hard".

/P

Re:Baseball?? BASEBALL????

[king-manic]

Baseball is the only truly divinely inspired game (Soccer comes close).

On the Ninth Day, G-d created Baseball.

well. I guess thats proof against intelligent design.

Re:Random bits from the book...

[Joebert]

Does anyone else wonder if My Cousin Vinnies argument about grits still holds weight ?

Re:And what do horoscopes have to do with science?

[rossifer]

Your horoscope for today:

Aries - certain deficiencies in your education and upbringing will lead you to the sadly mistaken belief that the location of celestial bodies can influence events in your life.

(paraphrased from memory, originally in "The Onion")

Re:Being cool doesn't work either.

[greg1104]

This sort of thing only reinforces the idea that adults are clueless and generally to be ignored. See also: public service announcements by MC Hammer or Flava Flave.

That's why those fools should leave the educational lessons to Mr. T [youtube.com]!

Re:Women scare what percentage of /.ers shitless?

[Alsee]

I'll skip the obvious and lame division by zero error joke.
I hit a Pentium FDIV bug.

-

wrong Winnie

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I seriously the only person who saw the title and wondered why a Bear of Very Little Brain would be writing a textbook?

Re:Barbie disagrees

[blzabub]

semi-retarded?

Re:oh, great...

[ArmyOfFun]

It should feature GI Joe's using math to kill each other, aliens, and anything gross or violent. For the older boys lets throw in some soft core porn to get their eyes on the page (males are after all more visual, right?).

Sir, I'd like to buy this book.

Re:And still more wildcards

[kalaf]

Alright, no one is to flame anyone until I blow this whistle. Even... and I want to make this absolutely clear... even if they do type "God"

Re:Baseball?? BASEBALL????

[Attila Dimedici]

What do you mean on the Ninth Day? Haven't you ever read Genesis, the rest of the creation story takes place "In the Big Inning".....cue the groans.

Re:Barbie disagrees

[risk one]

It's almost degrading to women that people keep bringing this stuff up. Condescending might be the right word. Like when someone feels the need to comment about how well Colin Powell speaks. There's an unspoken 'and he's black' that is left hanging for the listener to fill in by themselves.

I always fill that in with 'and he was in the Bush administration.'

Re:Nice try, but...

[adisakp]

OK, I'm dying to know: what sport at your high school is so unspeakably vulgar that you have to censor the name?

I don't know but it obviously involves getting a bunch of guys together and playing with their balls.

Re:Random bits from the book...

[qualidafial]

Reminds me of "The Woman Song" I heard on the Bob and Tom show:

I am Woman, hear me roar! (if you don't open my door..)
I can do anything that a man can do! (but I don't have to..)

They also did an equivalent song for the guys, "He's the Man:"

And I can have sex any time (that you want..)
Cause I'm a man with needs! (but they're not that important..)

I hate you

[pestie]

Jokes like that are the reason I desperately wish that technology had advanced to the point where I could punch someone in the nuts via the internet.

Re:Barbie disagrees

[mackyrae]

Hey, I'm a teenage girl and there is a chunk of the teenage-girl-population that I swear speaks a different language. If someone figured out how to translate math into their language, good for them.

Re:oh, great...

[Der Einzige]

Lets make a similar math book for all the boys who aren't interested in math. It should feature GI Joe's using math to kill each other, aliens, and anything gross or violent. For the older boys lets throw in some soft core porn to get their eyes on the page (males are after all more visual, right?).

You're looking for books by Robert Heinlein, sir. You'll find them in the science fiction section of our store under "H."

Re:Barbie disagrees

[orcrist]

The two female developers I work with periodically...

Must... resist... bad... joke... [sweat pouring down face]

Re:Barbie disagrees

[Anonymous Coward]

chicks ... he does not get any of those ...