Need to refresh your math skills? From basic algebra to calculus and beyond.

Linking to this to the subject matter, most of the lessons have to do with math and science, in a way that requires diagrams and specific notations. Both of which cannot be represented in plain-text or HTML without external files.

Fair enough. Maybe a gifted teacher can write a book :-)

"Again, not everything works for everyone."

I agree. There are a lot of texts which ignore the history. It would be great to have a few which retraced the paths.

(I 'spect part of it is that history is a 'humanity' ... but also that it's because they didn't get the history either, and didn't have time to learn it well enough to teach it.)

The physics department (major US university) actually hired a history of science scholar, and I heard grumbling that he should be paid for by another department.

In my physics class in high school, we discussed the progression of models of the atom. Each time, we learned what experiment led to the new thoughts, and how surprising it was. I thought this was a great way to learn the topic. We didn't, however, spend too much time on the history and never read any of the original papers.

Note: We did have a great teacher.

On the other hand, one difficulty with teaching topics historically is that it is hard to group things by topics. For example, in mathematics, the function is a relatively recent idea. Newton died before the function was thought up, but calculus is usually taught as "take the derivative of a function." This is not to say that history would be useless in this case, but it may require even more talent from the teacher.

But I care.

In your world do only potato sellers need text books?

I wasn't talking about textbooks for potato sellers, so I fail to see how this is relevant. The implicit audience in my post is a reader of HN. Does your potato vendor post on HN? ;-)

I wasn't talking about elementary mathematics in case that wasn't clear from the context. So now you know.

As you no doubt know already, I was responding to a very specific comment that said "I found that the best way for me to internalize a particular subject in hard science is to follow its history by reading the original papers." and I just made an observation noting my surprise why (some) textbooks aren't structured to help people like the commenter , not your potato vendor whom I haven't had the honor of meeting.

"What we really need is professors knowledgeable enough to answer these questions or point the student to the right texts."

Another strawman?

(a)I was asking for some textbooks to be structured this way for people who like learning that way.

(b) there is no reason not to wish for good professors and textbooks of all kinds (NOT professors ExclusiveOr textbooks - where did you get that idea?) .

Since I wasn't advocating that potato sellers should be taught the history of additions and fractions, or that textbooks should be substitutes for good professors, I'll leave you be to hack at your favorite strawmen in peace ;-).

And yes, who doesn't like games?

I know of others who have a similar attitude to games, and now, as I approach 50, I can't care much about them either.

Games aren't "Real World."

If you want "Real World" motivation then find some stuff from the real world.

To add some context, I am passionate about putting things in context and making them relevant. I visit schools to talk about uses of math, and explaining how these subjects are anything but isolated and irrelevant stuff to learn and hoops to jump through. I've given talks in venues such as the West Yorkshore Playhouse, the Royal Exchange in Manchester, the Criterion Theatre in the West End of London, Navy Pier in Chicago, and others around the world. I give examples from GPS and SatNav through intercepting drugs couriers and on to gene splicing and DNA analysis. I talk about finding cliques and connections in social networks, and then apply that to detecting plaigarism and ranking web sites. I talk about weather forecasting, roulette, life assurance and debt management.

I mention them in passing when relevant, but I don't talk much about games.