What Happens If We Remove Mathematics?
A simple test for whether the math is really part of the game
What happens if we remove the mathematics from a math game? Not permanently, just long enough to see what remains.
It’s a genuinely interesting question, not a loaded one. Some of the most popular math products in the world have done something remarkable: they have made children want to do more mathematics than they might ever choose to do on their own. That is worth sitting with before anything else.
But wanting to play and wanting to do mathematics aren’t always the same want. Sometimes they point in the same...
