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Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Americans were blatantly anti-intellectual. In other countries, people who used their brains were respected, even revered. But in America, these people were teased and mocked and called names -- such as egghead, geek, and nerd. In those benighted times, American nerds were ashamed. They tried to hide their nerdiness from other non-nerds. They were afraid to come 'out of the closet' and be themselves. But now all that has changed. The American economy has been transformed by computer technology, which is the province of nerds. The richest man in the world -- Bill Gates -- is a nerd. We nerds are no longer ashamed. In fact, we are proud. We celebrate our nerdiness. If you are a nerd, strike a blow for Nerd Pride right now. Stand up and shout it: "I'm a nerd, and I'm proud!" |
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MathNerds is a non-profit corporation. MathNerds primary function is its free service providing hints, direction, references, or guidance (not necessarily answers) in many areas of mathematics. The MathNerds team members are unpaid volunteers whose only compensation for their efforts are the "Thank You" messages from our clients. |
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Because we love mathematics. |
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MathNerds was formed during the summer of 1999 by Valerio De Angelis and W. Ted Mahavier. MathNerds is an extension of The Math Doctor (not to be confused with Ask Dr. Math) which was started in 1996. |
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The MathNerds volunteers are an ever expanding group of mathematicians (both academic and industrial), mathematics educators, and other bright minds from all over the world who volunteer some of their time each week to help people with their mathematical difficulties. |
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For years MathNerds provided our service without requiring clients to register. Unfortunately, the only way to protect the security of the system, the archive, the clients, and the volunteers was to require client logins. We apologize for the inconvenience. |
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Anyone! Click volunteer to see if you have skills that match our needs. Most of our volunteers have PhDs in mathematics or mathematics education, but we also have high school and university students on our team. |
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No, but we will help you with it. We have a strong commitment to inquiry-based education, teaching people to teach themselves. We do not contribute to the abuse of the internet via doing homework, take home tests, or school related projects. We desire to help our clients by providing guidance, references, and hints, not answers. In the words of E. M. Forster, “Spoon feeding, in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.” |
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Volunteers have password-protected profiles enabling them to choose the weekly volume of questions that they receive in each category ranging from K-5 to graduate mathematics. Clients submit a question by category via on-line forms and the question is directed to a volunteer who has agreed to answer questions in that category and who has not met his or her weekly cap. Volunteers are not obligated to answer the questions they receive and unanswered questions are moved to a general queue where any team member may reply. We answer 97% of all questions within 16 hours. |
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While unable to sleep at night for fear some poor student did not have any help with a troubling math question, the MathNerds team developed the algorithm. You can see an oversimplified sketch of our algorithm by viewing either our client flow chart or our volunteer flow chart. |
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Direct all e-mail (but not math questions) to MathNerds. |
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Education World gives MathNerds an "A". Woman's World Magazine, October 3, 2000, p. 36, says:
References and links for MathNerds media appearances:
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MathNerds depends on our sponsors to stay alive. We do not have a fundraising team or a business team. We really are a group of mathematicians providing a service by giving of our own time. The life of the site (and our service to students) depends on our volunteers and the charity of others. |
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No one gets paid to provide this unique service. In addition, we have recurring expenses (legal, programming, volunteer recruitment, ISP charges, etc.) that need to be paid in order to keep the web site running. |
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You can volunteer your time to help our clients with their questions. You can download our flier and post it at your school. You can also send a small contribution by Paypal to wtm@mathnerds.com. You can become a MathNerds sponsor. |
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Click here to read the MathNerds legal policy. |
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Click here to read the MathNerds privacy policy. |
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Below are the volunteers who wish to be listed. Many more wish to remain anonymous. More than 853 people have volunteered for MathNerds since its inception, and more than 544 people are currently active.
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