Post #3993062

2026-07-21 16:14 UTC

Discovered today that one of the most formative books of my childhood, Math For Smarty Pants (1983), is available as a full PDF online: https://arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/mathpants.pdf It's not a super well known book, though I bet there are plenty of Fediverse nerds who loved it as much as I did. The book was full of cool math stuff, but also wonderful cartoons and stories. Reading the sentence "The mathematician believed that every rule probably has exceptions" at age 7 basically cemented who I am

Replies (5)

@darius@friend.camp 2026-07-21 16:31

In a very real way, it's "Gödel, Escher, Bach" for kids! Like check out these pages. A pretty decent introduction to "proofs" for a very young child! Thinking about it now, the book came out 4 years after GEB -- I would not be surprised to learn that the author was influenced and maybe even thought "what if I bring some of these concepts into childhood math education?"

Open ##4025352
@thomaswilburn@hachyderm.io 2026-07-21 16:32

@darius@friend.camp God, I loved these books.

Open ##4188785
@danbruno@xoxo.zone 2026-07-21 17:00

@darius@friend.camp Oh wow I had this book too! I hadn't thought about it in decades, incredible

Open ##4188788
@anthracite@dragon.style 2026-07-21 17:03

@darius@friend.camp ah yes, the Brown Paper School series was great stuff.

Open ##4188790
@loppear@social.coop 2026-07-21 17:42

@darius@friend.camp this is part of the Brown Paper School series, they are all incredible in the same way of fun, depth, factoids, just wonderful. "The Book of Where" on geography is the one I remember most strongly as a kid, but having revisited library copies of them recently when our kid was the right age, "The Book of Think" (on problem-solving), "Gee Whiz" (on art and science) and "This Book Is About Time" all get high marks too. Thanks for the reminder to keep sampling some more!

Open ##4188797