Puns, math, references to Bob Ross, the outdoors, and a really kind teacher: That’s the combination school children deserve, dang it! And yet it almost never happens. But that’s OK; the world’s still a happy place, full of happy people and happy little trees, and this video of a very happy math teacher explaining how logarithms work using logs as a metaphor. The logs also seem happy.
First of all, kudos to Tibees (real name Toby), for nailing the Bob Ross sense of serene contentment. If teachers normally taught math this way, the number of people interested in playing with numbers would multiply dramatically. Plus, we can trust the information in Tibees’ video (which comes via Laughing Squid), because she received her undergraduate degree in Physics & Math. Also, it’s logarithms we’re talking about here, not the mathematical madness that was required to make this “invisibility cloak.”
As for the actual lesson, it’s clearly fantastic. It’s concise, it’s clear, it’s full of little happy trees and even a short little happy walk through the nearby forest at the end. Although, if you’re looking for a bit more context for why we use logarithms, this video from YouTube channel Don’t Memorise is pretty fantastic as well. It’s sadly lacking in Bob Ross style, but it more than makes up for it with a great use case for the logarithmic scale. Which clearly explains its purpose. (It turns out that learning about how much variation there can be between earthquakes is downright mind-blowing.)
What are your thoughts on this base-ten-filled ode to Bob Ross? Do you think you would’ve learned about ten times more math in school if this had been the teaching method? Give us your thoughts, and as many “happy little” Bob Ross references as possible, in the comments!
Images: Tibees
