{"id":13220,"date":"2022-08-26T15:12:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T15:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/26\/duolingo-has-math-now-and-its-kind-of-hard\/"},"modified":"2022-08-26T15:12:51","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T15:12:51","slug":"duolingo-has-math-now-and-its-kind-of-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/26\/duolingo-has-math-now-and-its-kind-of-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Duolingo has math now (and it\u2019s kind of hard)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/26\/23319398\/duolingo-math-app-beta-launch-duocon-2022<\/a>
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Yes, you read that headline correctly. Duolingo, the language learning app famous for the owl that haunts my dreams every night<\/a>, now has a companion app to teach you (and children \u2014 but mostly you, reader) mathematics. <\/p>\n

To get the most pressing question out of the way: yes, the owl is present in the new app, which is called Duolingo Math. However, said bird appears to have been compressed into a cube of sorts. I am unsure if it continues to qualify as an owl in this new form factor. I do suppose a mascot reclassification wouldn\u2019t be amiss here, since owls can\u2019t do math. Come on now. This isn\u2019t fantasyland.<\/p>\n

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It took me four tries to pull this screenshot from the opening animation. You\u2019re welcome.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

As someone who has studied a number of languages through Duolingo (you will pry my 200-day streak out of my cold, dead hands) but who lost any natural affinity for mathematics once the letters got involved, I consider myself the ideal candidate to test out Duolingo\u2019s math course, which begins with \u201cMultiplication 1.\u201d Perfect. That\u2019s about where I\u2019m at. <\/p>\n

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Come be a student!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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This is kind of hard to do without multiplying, right? Like it might take a reasonable person a few seconds? It\u2019s not just me?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

(By the way, I assume \u201cmagnitude\u201d above does not refer to the field of higher mathematics that evaluates the effective diversity of point clouds, but I think it\u2019d be incredible if they just threw that in here. Guess I\u2019ll find out after I\u2019ve learned Rounding.)<\/p>\n

The topics that follow multiplication include division, fractions, area, perimeter, angles, telling time, and other things I promptly forgot how to do as soon as I graduated from high school. You get a vertical progression of lessons that build on each other as you go along. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gone through some of the multiplication and division units so far, and the experience is aesthetically similar to that of the language app. The little \u201cding\u201d that you hear when you get an answer correct is similarly satisfying, but not identical, to the one you hear in language courses. The lessons are similarly quick, taking less than two minutes to complete. You watch your little circles fill up as you complete the lessons. If you don\u2019t study as often as you should, you get a passive-aggressive notification from the cubic bird of prey.<\/p>\n

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