Prepare 7

  1. When you think of what countable numbers define your life, what are those numbers? My phone number, for example, is not countable: it’s just an identification number. The number of children I have (2) is countable, for example. What do you think historians in 500 years might conclude based on your numbers?

  2. What areas of math do you succeed (excel) at? Which areas of math are you working on? For example, I find reviewing lots of numbers in spreadsheets to be comfortable and interesting for both history and as a faculty member. As well, I enjoy different ways of answering questions through statistics, such as the Gapminder project. In contrast, I find calculus-based equations, that I have little training in solving, to be anxiety producing, even as I’m trying to learn as much as I can from them.

  3. What are some potential challenges we face when using historical counts?