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Althea's Math Mysteries
Book 1: Althea asks her mom if there's a square root of -1. Mom tells her about some crazy history, and they play with imaginary and complex numbers.
Book 2: Althea and her friends - Kiara, Sofia, and Aiden - get together to explore geometry, pi, and trigonometry.
Book 4: Covid has hit, and Althea and her friends are homeschooling for 9th grade. They explore calculus with a little help from Mom.
Who is Althea?
Here's what she says in the beginning of the first book:
We live in a funky old house - me, my brother Rudy, and our moms. I get to homeschool now, and I love being able to read all day one day, ride my bike for miles and miles the next day, and then play around with math problems the day after that.
And of course there’s my cookie-baking project. I’m trying to make as many different kinds of cookies as I can. Yum.
What are Althea's Math Mysteries?
Young adult novels with math exploration at the center. Imagine hanging out with Althea and her friends, and learning math with them. (So much nicer than a textbook.) The mysteries are in the math:
Why did mathematicians ever create something as strange as imaginary numbers?
Why are triangles are the only shape that can’t collapse?
Why do the squares of the legs in a right triangle add up to the square of the hypotenuse?
Why does the formula for a circle use the Pythagorean theorem (aka right triangle theorem) with different letters?
Why do the digits of pi go on forever?
What does pi actually means?
Why is division by zero a problem?
Which book should I read first?
Whichever one strikes your fancy! Each book can be read on its own.
Wait, where's book 3?
The 3rd book will be Althea and the Mysteries of Infinity, in which Althea and her friends explore the many ways infinity can show up when we're playing with math. In this book her brother Rudy and his friend Sami join them. I haven't yet seen a path through it, though I have lots of exciting ideas. My good friend L is hoping to help me find that path.
Would you like to help make these books better?
You can be a beta read, and offer me feedback. Just email me at altheasmathmysteries@gmail.com and request one of the books.
Do you like writing fanfiction?
Here's your chance! Write new scenes for any of the books, and email them to me at altheasmathmysteries@gmail.com. I'll post them here if they're age-appropriate.
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