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Danica McKellar's Math Bites

Published on Sunday, February 02, 2014 in , , , , , , , , ,

Danica McKellar's Math Bites seriesNo, I'm not insulting Danica McKellar's math ability, I swear! I even sell her math books over in the Grey Matters Store!

Math Bites is actually the name of Danica McKellar's new weekly video series from Nerdist, which started last month.

Math Bites can be found on YouTube, and you can subscribe to the Nerdist channel for regular updates, as well.

Each episode is only about 5-6 minutes long, and focuses on one math topic. The style is somewhat like that of Square One TV, in that there are short comedy skits and musical segments that help reinforce the concepts or give you breathing time to let the concepts sink in. I especially like the takeaway tips at the end of each episode, which summarize the important points of each episode.

The first episode focused on a topic near and dear to my heart, the constant Pi:



While many Grey Matters readers have memorized Pi to 400 digits, some might prefer the full Dance of the Sugar Pi Fairy to help them memorize Pi to 139 digits.

The second episode talked about the importance of being able to do math in your head. No, this episode doesn't talk about extraordinary mental math feats like those taught in the Mental Gym, but rather knowing how to do basic arithmetic and estimation well enough so that you don't get ripped off:



You can already get an idea of why I like this series so much. It touches on the basics of topics I've posted about many times before. I've posted about binary numbers both on their own, and their importance in Nim, so the 3rd episode on binary numbers was also helpful and entertaining:



The most recent episode as of this posting is about percentages, and focuses on how they can mislead you. Sometimes you can get taken advantage of when businesses can't do math, and also when businesses can do math, so percentages can be very important to understand:



Even if you missed the initial announcement of Math Bites, you're now completely caught up with the series. Here's hoping that Danica McKellar keeps this series up for a long time to come!

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3 Response to Danica McKellar's Math Bites

4:15 AM
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11:23 AM

Did anyone other than me realize that 'pancake girl' ("Percentages" video) was the same actress that played the younger daughter on "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter?"

2:24 PM

It's interesting all the connections you can already see in the Math Bites videos.

The pancake girl, Amy Davidson, is indeed the actress who played Kerry Hennessy on "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter".

Her older sister on that show was played by Kaley Cuoco, now known as Penny on The Big Bang Theory.

Danica was on an episode of The Big Bang Theory in which she and Jen Drohan double date with Raj and Sheldon. Jen Drohan also appears in the "DO MATH IN YOUR HEAD!" video, complaining about her phones constantly being stolen.

The woman who confesses to "stealing that lady's phones" is Kellie Martin, whom you may remember as Becca Thacher, Corky's sister in the series Life Goes On.