Figure 2 - uploaded by Alberto Saracco
Content may be subject to copyright.
![Brigivati [14], page 10, c Disney, -The stars changed their mind on your destiny, Nenevati! -But... a pearl is blocking the hourglass! -That's true! I see it! -My daughter, your destiny is to devote yourself only to mathematics! -To soothe her pain, Thaskara dedicated her his treaty... so that she would be remembered by mathematicians!](profile/Alberto-Saracco/publication/335566062/figure/fig1/AS:798718978715650@1567440852346/Brigivati-14-page-10-c-Disney-The-stars-changed-their-mind-on-your-destiny.jpg)
Brigivati [14], page 10, c Disney, -The stars changed their mind on your destiny, Nenevati! -But... a pearl is blocking the hourglass! -That's true! I see it! -My daughter, your destiny is to devote yourself only to mathematics! -To soothe her pain, Thaskara dedicated her his treaty... so that she would be remembered by mathematicians!
Source publication
![Figure 2: Brigivati [14], page 10, c Disney, -The stars changed their...](profile/Alberto-Saracco/publication/335566062/figure/fig1/AS:798718978715650@1567440852346/Brigivati-14-page-10-c-Disney-The-stars-changed-their-mind-on-your-destiny_Q320.jpg)
Comics and illustrated stories are a communicative means of great impact. They conjugate the immediacy of the image with the possibility to tell a story and explain things with words. It is without doubts a great mean for dissemination and popularization of mathematics, other than-in certain contexts-a possible strong teaching tool. Nevertheless ,...
Citations
Is math useful? might sound as a trick question. And it is. Of course math is useful, we live in a data-filled world and every aspect of life is totally entwined with math applications, both trivial and subtle applications, of both basic and advanced math. But we need to ask once again that question, in order to truly understand what is math useful for and what being useful means. Moreover, is it knowledge of math useful for a class of specialists, or for political leaders or for all people at large? Being more on a concrete level, why does math need to have a central role in education? Each section will be titled by a question. And each section will not give an answer, but—at least I hope—provide some food for thought to the reader, in order to try to come up with his or her own answers. I feel that these kind of questions are at home in a book devoted to the interplays between mathematics and culture: what is the space we should give to math in culture and what is math’s role in becoming a complete citizen?
Citations are getting more and more important in the career of a researcher. But how to use them in the best possible way? This is a satirical paper, showing a bad trend currently happening in citation trends, due to intensive use of citation metrics. I am putting this on the arXiv and on Researchgate.
Appeared in The Mathematical Intelligencer (10.1007/s00283-021-10146-x).
Feel free to cite this paper, if you agree with it!
