Paul Mecurio

If due to some reason we were to adopt another base system instead of 10 and spent all these years doing math in that system instead of base 10, do you think there would be theories that we would fail to develop?

Alternatively, do you think...

we would have maybe developed even better or more successful theories if humanity had been using another base number system all these years.

I love that.

But why do you just say, Terry, that you either have to start with a big number or a small number?

Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Hello, Dr. Tyson.

This is Raul.

Hello, Dr. Tyson, Professor Tao.

I am Raul.

I have a few steps on the sea train from the Natural History Museum.

Oh, nice.

My question is to all of you, if you could, which means I'll handle this, guys.

If you could.

How would you change the pedagogical landscape for mathematics education?

I recall reading an old math text where question at the end of the chapter had me write a short essay on the behavior of a function rather than do something more mechanical.

This exercise is really quite beautiful and left me with far more intuition than if I had been asked to do something else.

Well, you can get into the mechanics of what you need to do to make it more interesting.

But at the core of it, and I mean this seriously, and I've said this about Neil,

It really is about the emotionality of the person delivering the information, right?