Reader testing
Feedback from three perspectives
For students, teachers, and the simply curious. No prior knowledge of logarithms needed — if you can do 3 + 5, you can follow this to the end.
Reader testing
Early readers tried the article from different backgrounds. Below is their feedback — in their own words where possible.
VWO year 2 — student
A second-year pre-university student who has not yet met logarithms in class, reading the Dutch version of the article.
I get the arrows, but not the other notation.
The word "inverse" is unclear. The parallel with addition and subtraction does not jump out at once. She relies heavily on the calculator and takes considerably longer than the planned 15 minutes.
Applied mathematics, year 1 — student
A first-year applied-mathematics student reads the Chinese version of the article. He does not see himself as the intended audience. Conventional notation is not difficult for him to follow — he prefers examples that use letters only, not numbers. He does think the arrow notation could help a secondary-school student grasp the pattern. Once you go further with the subject, conventional notation still has to be learned — but for the basics, this new notation may already be enough.
Lower-secondary maths — former teacher
A former lower-secondary mathematics teacher sees a different pattern in the classroom: students often push back on abstract letter examples, while applied, numeric stories (savings, piano tuning, earthquakes) tend to hold attention.
Calculator
Scrolls along with you as you read
2 ↑ 3 = 82 = 8 ↓ 3left unknown? use down3 = 8 ⇓ 2right unknown? use double-down