Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths

With special guest:

• Eddie Woo
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

We hardly need to do an introduction for our guest today. Eddie Woo has become very well-known through regular television appearances and YouTube lessons as one of the leading teachers in the world. The Government has recognised this by recently appointing him as a “super teacher” so that he can visit schools around NSW and inspire the teachers to inspire their students.

Ever thought that you were just no good at Maths and anyway what good is Maths in everyday life. Our guest today begs to differ on both counts.

Eddie says Maths is for everyone and he has lots of ways of convincing you that not only is Maths fascinating but it underlies everything in the universe. Yes Eddie Woo comes to Dads on the Air and adds to the audience on his YouTube channel Wootube where he has been viewed a staggering 24 million times (as at November 2018).

For those not lucky enough to sit in on a live Maths class with Eddie he has written a new book called Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths. In this program we talk about some of the best bits of this wonderful world that he has written about. We also get to find out how Eddie came to embrace Maths himself before enthusing countless others as a teacher.

Who does Eddie admire as a Mathematician? The answer might surprise you. Eddie also reveals the links between Maths and music, and speaking of music, Eddie solves a mystery most of us have discovered on our iPhones. How it is that your iPhone may sometimes have a day where it plays the one artist time and again when it is supposed to be a random program? Is it that the iPhone just likes the artist or can it be that there is a recognised Maths principle in operation?

We also hear about the gamblers’ fallacy which might save some of us a lot of money. And what is The Golden Ratio? And next time you are asked for a “proof” you would do well to think about what Eddie tells us about scientific proof, as against historical proof, as against Maths proofs.

There is a lot more to Maths than working through some formulas or doing geometry problems and if you can share in the enthusiasm of Eddie Woo, Maths will never be the same again.

Eddie Woo

Eddie Woo is the head mathematics teacher at Cherrybrook Technology High School, Sydney. He has been teaching maths for more than ten years.

In 2012, Eddie started recording his lessons and uploading them to Youtube - creating ‘Wootube’. Since then, he has amassed a following of more than 460,000 subscribers and his videos have been viewed more than 24 million times (as at November 2018).

In 2018, Eddie was named Australia’s Local Hero of the Year and shortlisted as one of the top ten teachers in the world. Also in 2018 Eddie was appointed by the NSW Government as a “Super Teacher.”

Song selection by our guest: Down Under by Men at Work

Listen Now (mp3)