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Paul Lockhart

Wednesday 6th of May 2026

Knowledge We are able to ask perfectly natural geometric questions that we can't answer. Moreover, we can prove  that they are unanswerable. In other works, we can know that something is unknowable. Maybe this is not so depressing after all – it's a pretty amazing human accomplishment! Paul Lockhart, Measurement © 2017 Kwiple.com
Math Arithmetic can be a gateway drug for mathematics. Paul Lockhart, Arithmetic © 2017 Kwiple.com
Math People don't do mathematics because it's useful. They do it because it's interesting. Paul Lockhart, Meassurement © 2017 Kwiple.com
Math The solution to a math problem is not a number; it's an argument, a proof. We're trying to create these little poems of pure reason. Of course, like any other form of poetry, we want our work to be beautiful as well as meaningful. Mathematics is the art of explanation, and consequently, it is difficult, frustrating, and deeply satisfying. Paul Lockhart, Meassurement © 2017 Kwiple.com
Math We constructed an infinite sequence of increasingly better approximations, and there was enough of a pattern in those approximations that we could tell where they were heading. In other words, an infinite sequence of lies with a pattern  can tell us the truth. It is arguable that this is the single greatest idea the human race has ever had. Paul Lockhart, in Meassurement, commenting on the method of exhaustion, which lets us make exact measurements using an infinite series of approximations  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Selfie I think I'd rather take a car apart than use it to carry groceries. Paul Lockhart, Arithmetic © 2017 Kwiple.com
 
Selfie I'm sticking with my six-year old feeling of delight in things that move by themselves. You don't want to think of an odometer as alive and possessed of a soul, then don't. But Odometer and I have a beautiful relationship, and when she rolls over, I go to pieces. Paul Lockhart, Arithmetic © 2017 Kwiple.com