Seminar at University of Ulster, 21st February 2024. https://alandix.com/academic/talks/Ulster-2024-QQ/ As academics we need to deal with numbers including project management spreadsheets and student marks. In addition, they are part of day-to-day life whether household budgeting or working out how many socks to pack for a journey. Perhaps most crucially, many national and global issues require an understanding of numeric information from climate change to tax rates, and of course the Covid-19 pandemic. If citizens are not able to make sense of this, democracy fails. Of course, many are not only uncertain when dealing with numbers, but suffer more or less extreme maths anxiety. Indeed a recent UK survey found that, “over a third of adults (35%) say that doing maths makes them feel anxious, while one in five are so fearful it even makes them feel physically sick”. Sometimes detailed calculations are necessary, but often the critical skill is qualitative–quantitative reasoning, that is a qualitative understanding of quantitative phenomena. This can after be aided by the ability to use back-of-the-envelope calculations and dealing with lightweight numeric information. This talk discusses these issues and presents some prototype tools to explore the design space for personal numeric information.

1. Alan Dix
https://alandix.com/
@alanjohndix
Qualitative–Quantitative reasoning
and lightweight numbers

2. climate change
numbers matter …
in short ….
being a C21 citizen
covid
Brexit growing
inequality

4. BBC – fact check

5. BBC – fact (double) check
raw = £350m
after rebate = £276m
minus half of that = (£138m)
net figure = £138m

10. arithmetic mathematics
?

11. the qualitative understanding
of quantitative phenomena

13. HCI?

14. HCI for
qualitative quantitative reasoning
in HCI
visualisation
tools for
quick and dirty
calculation

15. Fitts Law
in practice
HCI for
qualitative quantitative reasoning
in HCI
visualisation
tools for
quick and dirty
calculation
CSCW
critical mass

16. scientific QQ
Fitts Law
as cybernetics

17. Electrostatically-charged crop sprays

18. Above canopy model
ground at
0 V
open boundary
condition complex
sprayer at
high voltage
+ 1000s V
charged
spray drops
model path,
speed and
space voltage
due to drop
cloud
?

19. Within Canopy Model
crop modelled as
straight sides
ground at
bottom
+V – charged spray enters crop
canopy from above;
speed and charge determined
by above canopy model.

20. Within Canopy Model
crop modelled as
straight sides
ground at
bottom
+V – charged spray enters crop
canopy from above;
speed and charge determined
by above canopy model.

21. Misses crop (Class I)

22. Good spread (Class II)

23. All at the top (Class III)

24. Connect and re-parameterise
+ 1000s V
above crop model
within
crop model
dimesionless
parameters

25. Design/engineering interventions
X

27. BBC – fact (mis)check

28. data and provenance
quotes and context
Snip!t
make it easy!
1970s file systems, Word and PPT

30. data and provenance
quotes and context
Snip!t
make it easy!
1970s file systems, Word and PPT

32. Monotonic reasoning
Shops to politics

33. ↑ more
automation
↓ less
labour needed
↑ higher
productivity
↑ higher
prosperity
↓ less
employment
↓ lower
wages
? people
better off
↑ ↓

34. ↑ more
automation
↓ decline of
other companies
↑ more
competative
↑ growth
of company
↓ less
jobs elsewhere
↑ more
jobs there
? overall
employment
↑
↓

37. numerical data
numeric data and innumeracy
–more BBC – 35,000 m3 vs 35 km3
qualitative–quantitative reasoning
–iVolver
–worksheets

38. the size of Wales (TSoW)
478 square kilometers
184.5 square miles
about 1¼ times the size
of the Isle of Wight
184.5
sq miles
146.8
sq miles

39. numerical data
numeric data and innumeracy
–more BBC – 35,000 m3 vs 35 km3
qualitative–quantitative reasoning
–iVolver
–calQ
–worksheets

40. iVolver
(Méndez, Nacenta & Vandenheste, 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnJ80cEKKxo
https://sachi.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/research/visualisation/ivolver/

41. calQ
export

42. WS2 (worksheets)

43. WS2 (worksheets)

44. WS2 (worksheets)

45. a tool ecology

46. in summary
numbers matter
qualitative–quantitative reasoning
lightweight numeric tools

47. Qualitative–Quantitative reasoning
and lightweight numbers
Alan Dix
https://alandix.com/