Articles
Guides and resources about math education.
Math in Fitness: Steps, Calories, and Heart-Rate Zones
Two watches, one walk, two different effort zones. Why a percentage of the wrong number is the whole argument, why 60% of your maximum heart rate is not 60% of what you can actually do, and why a calorie number is only honest once you give it a range.
Math in Photography: Shutter Speed, Aperture, and Focus
Every camera setting is a purchase of light, and every purchase costs something else. Why one stop is always a doubling, why f/2.8 gathers barely half the light of f/2 even though the number only moved 0.8, and why focus is a tolerance rather than a boundary.
Math in Video Games: XP Curves, Loot Odds, and Power-Ups
A game is a machine built out of three numbers. Why the XP curve is a brake rather than a reward, why a 1% drop rate stays a 1% drop rate no matter how long you wait, and why damage per second is the one calculation every player is really doing.
Binary and Base Systems: The On-Off Math of Computers
Base ten is a habit, not a law. Any number of boxes is legal, which is why dozen comes from twelve, why an hour has sixty minutes, and why every computer uses two. How a base changes the digits but never the quantity, and why binary arithmetic is genuinely bad at decimal.
Codes and Ciphers: The Secret Math of Messages
Every letter cipher fails for one reason, and it is not the maths: English has a fingerprint. A shift moves the fingerprint but does not hide it, word lengths survive untouched, and rearranging the letters leaks even more.
Big Numbers: Millions, Billions, Trillions and Beyond
You do not need to memorise a single one of these names. Million is six zeros, every other name is three more, and the Latin prefix on the front is quietly doing the arithmetic. Plus why a million seconds is a fortnight and a billion seconds is your entire adult life.