A math drawing is a child’s rendered version of how they’d count objects like blocks or even their fingers in real life. They draw circles, for example, that correspond to the number of ...

Ben Orlin is the author of the blog, "Math With Bad Drawings" he also writes on a variety of topics related to math for: The Atlantic, Slate, The L.A. Times, and The Chicago Tribune.

Ancient Chinese and Indian scholars were also familiar with the relationship. This tablet, dated to as early as 2000 B.C., shows several math problems and drawings of trapezoids and triangles.