79: The Psychology of Math & Sudoku

Why is math both so easy and so hard for our brains, and how can the psychology of horses, babies, and mathematicians help answer that? And what wild journey did Sudoku take to become the popular puzzle that Ella adores?Things we Talk About:The Video of a Child Learning to CountThe Melencolia PaintingTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:59) The Psychology of Math(01:00:35) Sudoku(01:44:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the Wonderful student, it’s not you - it’s math, “I did biology for a reason”, children can want a lot of complex things, it’s harder in the UK cause its Maths plural, Caroline & Ella’s math journeys, charlie solves the Riemann hypothesis, the horse the myth the legend - clever hans, clever hans was drafted into the military AS A MATHEMATICIAN, real horse math! so many animals seem to have Number Sense, counting is hard for kids, multiplication isn’t counting - it’s memorization and other strategies, Caroline doesn’t have a great Mental Blackboard, kick flipping a chair in our minds to brag to Caroline, overlapping waves, hot or not for equations, hahaha a taylor expansion?? in Lp?? ridiculous! there is no one math organ in the brain, don’t give up on math, “I don’t treat math as a monolith (I think statistics is the worst math)”, that surprises me because sudoko’s amazing and you’re wrong, the ancient mystical turtle’s magic square, a mathematical warding spell, “once something is proved true, it is eternally true”, HOW DID ELLA NOT REALIZE THIS WAS A MATH TOPIC, magic squares are unsolved, math divination, wow this is a math’s topic huh, maths in art, Melancholia, the magic square on La Sagrada Familia, wait Magic Squares AREN’T the precursor to sudoku?? I don’t know this child, if not sudoku why sudoku shaped? the Latin square originated in Korea before Euler, my parents are older than sudoku, it was originally called Number Place, even though we call it Sudoku - in Japan it’s often called Number Place for trademark reasons, the 2004 sudoku boom, sudoku is an infectious meme, this topic took so long (because Ella took sudoku breaks), figuring out the question of unique puzzles, so many ways to think about a square, advanced sudoku techniques, x-wing and swordfish, sudoku championships, of course Ella found speed running in this topic, Sudoku doesn’t seem to cure cognitive decline - but it’s also just fun to do! a beautiful sudoku poem, it’s how we learn and it’s calming - a little win, “I feel like I need to lie down”, let us know if you know the difference between 3 apples and 4 apples.Sources:Perfect Pitch StudyFeigenson et al. Core System of NumberThe Clever Hans Phenomenon RevisitedNYTimes Berlin's Wonderful HorseActual Horse Number Sense StudyNumber Sense in AnimalsRat Brain Number Sense StudyNPR Why Big Numbers Break our BrainsErikson Institute Video of Child CountingThe Development of Mathematical CognitionMath Expert Brain Activity StudyThe Beauty of Math StudyUniversity of MAryland on Math Brain ActivityKeith Devlin Stanford TalkKatie Steckles: What Do Mathematicians Do All Day?---Wikipedia: Magic SquareRoyal Institution: Magic SquareUniversity of Cambridge: Magic SquareMagic Squares in Islamic MathematicsWiki: SudokuThe Guardian: History of SudokuThe Science of Sudoku by BY JEAN-PAUL DELAHAYEPaper: There Is No 16-Clue SudokuAdvanced Sudoku Techniques:Wiki: World Sudoku ChampionshipsSudoku.com: The Fastest Sudoku PlayerSudoku.com: 4 Reasons that Sudoku is the Perfect Puzzle GameWorking MemoryBBC: Puzzle Slolving and Cognitive DeclineSudoku 15 year studyGlobal Council on Brain Health ReportSudoku Mental Fortitude Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn