Pi Day Archives - Notes From NAP

Happy Pi Day!

How do you celebrate Pi Day? From recitation contests to pi conversion games to baking a pi pie, there are an infinite number of ways for math and science enthusiasts to celebrate 3/14. The date also marks the anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds in math and science ever to live.

If you are celebrating Pi Day or Einstein’s Birthday, think about giving a gift to your favorite mathematician or physicist, our gift to you is a 25% off discount on these items through the end of March. Just use discount code PD2013 when you check out. Be sure to take a look at these resources from NAP whether you’re celebrating Pi Day, Einstein’s birthday, or both!

Fueling Innovation and Discovery: The Mathematical Sciences in the 21st Century57 pages | Paperback | Price: $17.95The mathematical sciences are part of everyday life. Modern communication, transportation, science, engineering, technology, medicine, manufacturing, security, and finance all depend on the mathematical sciences. Fueling Innovation and Discovery… [more]

The Mathematical Sciences in 2025191 pages | Paperback | Price: $41.40The mathematical sciences are part of nearly all aspects of everyday life–the discipline has underpinned such beneficial modern capabilities as Internet search, medical imaging, computer animation, numerical weather predictions, and all types of digital… [more]

The Secret Life of Numbers: 50 Easy Pieces on How Mathematicians Work and Think224 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45Most of us picture mathematicians laboring before a chalkboard, scribbling numbers and obscure symbols as they mutter unintelligibly. This lighthearted (but realistic) sneak-peak into the everyday world of mathematicians turns that stereotype on its head.Most… [more]

Einstein Defiant: Genius Versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution356 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15“I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction. In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming house, than a… [more]

Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra390 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15Prime Obsession taught us not to be afraid to put the math in a math book. Unknown Quantity heeds the lesson well. So grab your graphing calculators, slip out the slide rules, and buckle up! John Derbyshire is introducing us to algebra through… [more]

Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics448 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15In August 1859 Bernhard Riemann, a little-known 32-year old mathematician, presented a paper to the Berlin Academy titled: “On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity.” In the middle of that paper, Riemann made an incidental remark � a guess, a… [more]

A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature272 pages | Hardcover | Price: $25.15Millions have seen the movie and thousands have read the book but few have fully appreciated the mathematics developed by John Nash’s beautiful mind. Today Nash’s beautiful math has become a universal language for research in the social sciences and has… [more]

Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities270 pages | Paperback | Price: $20.65From terrorist attacks to big money jackpots, Struck by Lightning deconstructs the odds and oddities of chance, examining both the relevant and irreverent role of randomness in our everyday lives. Human beings have long been both fascinated and… [more]

Schrödinger’s Rabbits: The Many Worlds of Quantum282 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45For the better part of a century, attempts to explain what was really going on in the quantum world seemed doomed to failure. But recent technological advances have made the question both practical and urgent. A brilliantly imaginative group of physicists at… [more]

Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time266 pages | Hardcover | Price: $22.45A new generation of observatories, now being completed worldwide, will give astronomers not just a new window on the cosmos but a whole new sense with which to explore and experience the heavens above us. Instead of collecting light waves or radio waves, these… [more]

Assessing the Reliability of Complex Models: Mathematical and Statistical Foundations of Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification131 pages | Paperback | Price: $37.80Advances in computing hardware and algorithms have dramatically improved the ability to simulate complex processes computationally. Today’s simulation capabilities offer the prospect of addressing questions that in the past could be addressed only by… [more]

Helping Children Learn Mathematics52 pages | Paperback | Price: $9.00Results from national and international assessments indicate that school children in the United States are not learning mathematics well enough. Many students cannot correctly apply computational algorithms to solve problems. Their understanding and use of… [more]

Mathematics and 21st Century Biology162 pages | Paperback | Price: $31.50The exponentially increasing amounts of biological data along with comparable advances in computing power are making possible the construction of quantitative, predictive biological systems models. This development could revolutionize those biology-based fields… [more]

Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics480 pages | Hardcover | Price: $31.45Adding It Up explores how students in pre-K through 8th grade learn mathematics and recommends how teaching, curricula, and teacher education should change to improve mathematics learning during these critical years.

The committee… [more]

How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom272 pages | Paperback | Price: $31.45How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling How People Learn. Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for… [more]

Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity398 pages | Hardcover | Price: $49.45Early childhood mathematics is vitally important for young children’s present and future educational success. Research demonstrates that virtually all young children have the capability to learn and become competent in mathematics. Furthermore, young… [more]

Ready, Set, SCIENCE!: Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms220 pages | Paperback | Price: $20.65What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators need to know… [more]

Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments240 pages | Paperback | Price: $22.45Practitioners in informal science settings–museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, libraries, aquariums, zoos, and botanical gardens–are interested in finding out what learning looks like, how to measure it, and… [more]

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas400 pages | Paperback | Price: $35.95Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity’s most pressing current and future challenges. The United States’ position in the global economy is declining, in part because U.S…. [more]

Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics44 pages | Paperback | Price: $11.65Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are cultural achievements that reflect our humanity, power our economy, and constitute fundamental aspects of our lives as citizens, consumers, parents, and members of the workforce. Providing all… [more]

Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects234 pages | Paperback | Price: $31.45Engineering education in K-12 classrooms is a small but growing phenomenon that may have implications for engineering and also for the other STEM subjects–science, technology, and mathematics. Specifically, engineering education may improve student learning… [more]