The full quote, as it appears in my Math You Can Play books:
Mathematicians don’t sit around doing the kind of math that you learned in school. What they do is “play around” with number games, spatial puzzles, strategy, and logic.
They don’t just play the same old games, though. They change the rules a little, and then they look at how the game changes.
So, when you play games, you are doing exactly what mathematicians really do — IF you fool with the games a bit, experiment, see how the play changes if you change a rule here and there.
Oh, and when you make up games and they flop, be sure to examine why they flop — that is a big huge part of what mathematicians do, too.
—Pam Sorooshian
Games and Math
Excerpted from my upcoming book, Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School, scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates.
CREDIT: “Blue night” photo by Vincent Chin on Unsplash.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 