I recently found a very unassuming looking blog called Better Explained. The author applies some great “every person” language to some very common yet complicated topics. For example, how exactly does the stock market work? And how about business accounting? I can’t believe how many people don’t have a basic understanding of income statements and balance sheets. How about that elusive “e” in math that shows itself everywhere but is so often not fully understood? Did anyone ever tell you that “e” is simply the “base amount of growth shared by all continually growing processes” in the same way that “pi” is simply the “ratio between circumference and diameter shared by all circles”? Even Wikipedia describes “e” as “the mathematical constant e is the unique real number such that the value of the derivative (slope of the tangent line) of f(x) = ex at the point x = 0 is exactly 1″. Eh - thanks but no thanks.
How about measuring any distance with the Pythagorean Theorem? Since it applies to it applies to any formula with a squared term did you know you can even use to measure more than triangles? How about distances between colors within the RGB color space? Cool! Never thought of that! The color distance gives us a quantifiable way to measure the distance between colors - the author mentions that you can also unscramble certain blurred images by cleverly applying color distance. True enough…it works. Go figure. He points out something that should have been more obvious all along. “If you can represent a set of characteristics with numbers, you can compare them with the theorem.”
Hmm. All this makes me realize there is always a better way to explain things.
Do we explain most things in the most straight forward way or are we in a habit of needlessly elaborating?
Hi all, thanks for the writeup. Yes, I’m a believer that anything can be explained in simple, everyday terms. If something is presented in a complicated way, it’s often because the explainer doesn’t understand it well enough. Also there’s a need to empathize with your audience — the Wikipedia entry is factually accurate, but way too detailed for 99% of the intended audience. Unfortunately most topics (especially math) are explained as expert-to-expert, not expert-to-beginner.
Anyway, appreciate the mention!