On the corner of a busy city street you'll find the street math table. Step up and flip through the large binders filled with laminated pages on various math topics. The helpful street math person will (for a modest fee) teach you a little math. Just pick a cool sounding topic from the binder. A blackboard stands ready, listen to the other lessons or select you own. It's like a juke-box math lesson! Who keeps asking for Graph Theory Topics? Could we learn some Calc? The fun never ends with street math.
When unemployed the street math person would yell "MAAAATH GET YOUR MAAAAAATH!" to the people passing by.-- futurebird, Apr 25 2007 NPR: George Nobl in New York http://www.npr.org/...ures/2002/apr/math/"By giving math lessons in Times Square -- and tossing candy bars to people who get the right answers -- Nobl hopes to persuade people to give math another chance." [jutta, Apr 26 2007] Street Math? http://muppet.wikia...iki/Count_von_Count [Jinbish, Apr 27 2007] I'd go for an educational kiosk but nonetheless, anything for furthing the education of people is worthy of a [plus].-- twitch, Apr 25 2007 Suddenly the homeless beggars would get a lot more popular, as people flock to their side of the street to avoid the math guy.-- phundug, Apr 25 2007 I pictured something similar to public chessboards in parks, where friendly competition or wagering could take place over utilizing the Riemann Hypothesis, Goldbach's conjecture, Hilbert's sixteenth problem, etc.-- nuclear hobo, Apr 26 2007 Yeah! And those no-good government thiefs better not try to overcharge on math licenses. Stand back and watch the integers fly.
I'll also take one of [twitch]'s /furthing/ educations since I'm broke.-- pigtails_and_ponies, Apr 26 2007 one times two equals two, fool. two times two equals four, want some more? three times two equals six, getcha kicks! four times two equals eight, get it straight!-- daseva, Apr 26 2007 Great idea. Finally, kids would have somewhere to go if their parents can't help them do their math homework! In contrast, the 2002 coverage of George Nobl in New York (link) irks me a little. If you have to bribe people with candy bars to do it, how much fun can it possibly be? And street-smart people would probably know that the price of a pizza-pie has very little to do with its area.-- jutta, Apr 26 2007 I was under the impression that buying and selling drugs will give the kids a pretty good education in math on the street corner. But I'm guessing that's not quite what you had in mind?-- DrCurry, Apr 26 2007 It passed through my mind, but I didn't go there because it would have relied on narrow stereotypes about both street kids and math, something that the commentary so far eschewed.-- jutta, Apr 26 2007 For a moment I thought this would be an "I'd rather be doing math" distraction. People who find themselves interminably stuck in line at the postal service, at a sports arena on the night before finals, in a prison lobby on visiting day, or countless other public venues that feature forced loitering would have said "large binders filled with laminated pages on various math topics" and benefit thereby.-- reensure, Apr 26 2007 Spooky coincidence:
Upon seeing [futurebird] as the author I thought: "Hey! Haven't seen her in a while.". I then looked at the profile to see if there were any new ideas. The first one I checked was "WWF anarchy..". It is dated exactly 5 years ago.<twilight zone theme>
Great idea, btw.-- Jinbish, Apr 27 2007 Half-baked...only because I've seen this idea materialized, but I think it should be baked all over the palce. I met "street math guy" in a very busy section of Manhattan one day about a year ago. He was an older gentleman, quite charming and funny I remember... posing basic physics and mathematical questions to those passers-by who were "brave" enough to stop and chat. If they got the answer right, he'd give them a tootsie roll. If wrong, he'd write out the solution on a marker board he had set up. Its was pretty funy experience to be honest. I hung around for a bit because he has such an interesting/philosophical way of explaining the solutions. Of course, the tourists were just snapping away photos.-- Archbishop Furball, Apr 27 2007 random, halfbakery