Zoltán Pál Dienes should not be confused with Paul Dienes.
Zoltán Pál Dienes (pronounced as /hu/; September 11, 1916 – January 11, 2014), anglicized as Zoltan Paul Dienes, was a Hungarian mathematician whose ideas on education (especially of small children) have been popular in some countries.[1] He was a world-famous theorist and tireless practitioner of the "new mathematics": an approach to mathematics learning that uses games, songs, and dance to make it more appealing to children.[2] He is credited with the creation of base ten blocks, popularly referred to as Dienes blocks.[3]
Dienes's life and ideas are described in his autobiography, Memoirs of a Maverick Mathematician, and his book of mathematical games, I Will Tell You Algebra Stories You've Never Heard Before . He has also published a book of poetry, Calls from the Past .
His later life contributions have been chronicled by Bharath Sriraman in the second monograph of The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast.[4]