Poll: How do you feel about math?

I have a love hate relationship with math. I do love numbers. They're soothing. But there's a certain point in the progression of math studies that it all becomes greek to me. I was good at geometry..ok at algebra...calculus whupped my sorry ass.

I'm very much a right-brain person. So even when I tackle numbers I tend to do it in that way. I love patterns....I love patterns within math. Like...I got all excited once when staring at a paul mccartney poster in my room I worked out that a square is always one more than the product of the numbers on either side. (like 4x4 is 16 while 3x5 is 15.) I told Paul B. that and he's like "well yeah" and showed me algebraically (sp?) why it was so and that just deflated me. Not really sure why it was more comforting to me to see it as this neat pattern and flow than like...a formula.

I think it has bearing on my science min d as well...I remember Physics class. I loved the class. I *got* all the concepts so easily when the class was struggling to understand them. But when equations came into it I just couldn't grasp it. I could explain the whys and the hows and all that fun stuff but if you asked me to calculate force or energy or blah blah I just crumbled. :)


I also think I tend to do math in my head in a non-logical way. I still ge the same places but I just can't seem to do it the mathy way. :)

OK, I'll stop babbling.

me too, on the "calculus v. other maths" thing. I'm retaking it because I finally want to get it

I like math alot. Some of the advanced stuff makes my head hurt. I liked calculus actually, but when it starts getting into differential equations and number theory, that gets a little heavy for me.

Being in computers, I do find codes and number theory interesting, but getting into the guts of it makes my head spin.

this was so obviously a gordon poll. :D

I was hoping someone would say that :-)

i feel like you've submitted this poll before, too. :)

Of course I should have said "maths."

I have dyscalculia. Quite literally, math is pain to me.

I can't do basic algebra on my best day... however, I can do quadratic equations without a hitch. go figure. I too suffer from dyscalculia. how interesting.

i loved math in HS all the way through AP Calc.

i got to college, and my calc prof was a dick.

i got a C for never showing up or turning in homework but acing the tests.

then i took descrete math (shh, dont tell anyone) and failed it :D

got a D in Elementary Logic - took the D and ran.

Retook descrete (shhh again) and got a C.

You should have had me as your prof. I never collect homework except when that is what I have to do to force students to do it. EVen then I'd give you an A because you proved you knew the material on the tests and that is what matters.

!! just don't give me any proofs, or make me play with Tarski's World.

or i'd have to kick you.

Proofs are the best part. If Math were a dinner proofs would be the desert. Or as the Brits might put it, "The proof is in the pudding."

math is such an ambiguous term. it totally means different things to different people. it's like saying 'art'.

what does 'i like art' mean? are we taking live beatnik poetry, music, production of textiles, comparitive analysis of native artwork versus average calorie intake for the tribe, etc. there's so many different aspects of it that you can get into, and each discipline is totally different and yet equally 'art'.

same way with math. do you mean raw number crunching and analysis? code development (i.e. UPC, hamming codes) or code breaking? are you dealing with physics problems like frictionless kinetics or astronomy problems with stellar mass versus light spectrums? pure algebra (in the sense of groups, rings, algebras, etc.)... escher-style artwork (i.e. art generate by mathematical formulae).

there's so much to it and it's all different.

hey, i love math, i love it to death, but you can suck my balls if you think i'm going to do numerical analysis... or applied physics... or actuarial-style math. some people totally get off on that but not me.

what do i like? i dunno. applied problems involving computers. like google's pet problem last week involving the first ten digit prime in the decimal form of e. took me like five minutes to solve that on a computer and so very satisfying... i found the next hundred ten-digit primes just to prove that i could. ;)

i like pure algebra too. deriving formulae for simple questions. for example, my roommate wanted to buy a triangular fish tank (that's a triangular base with normal 'vertical' walls) and he wanted to know how much water it would have given the width of the tank. he gave me the raw numbers and i totally gapped out, couldn't figure it out. once i switched the numbers to x's, etc. the problem fell apart immediately. some people prefer to perceive numbers, some people prefer to perceive variables... whatever does it for you.

anyways, math=good thing.

yeah, i tested into calc in college, which was the highest you could test into without being an honor student. i couldnt get into the honors program (and didn't want to, i was always the kid in honors classes that pulled a C, but really enjoyed herself ;) but i'd already gotten a 3 on the AP exam.

which i'll admit is not super-terrific, but you'd think BGSU would take it. they didn't. pfeh.

People always call classes like that, "______ for Poets."

Does anyone know of a school where that's an actual course title?

When I as an undergrad a group of philosophy students registered for the General Relativity despite not having any of the prerequisites. The Professor, let them take the course and made up special test for them to see if they understood the basic ideas without knowing the math.

the physic course for nonscience students at Cornell is called:
Why the Sky Is Blue: Aspects of the Physical World. Here is the description.

The sky is blue because it feels unfulfilled.

no, but BGSU kids call Geology 100 "rocks for jocks" :D

(i took geology 104 and 105 for my sciences, along with astronomy.)

I hate it. It makes me think too hard. And I can't do it without a calculator.

...Oddly enough, though, I'm REALLY good at it (with a calculator). I got a 700 on my math SATs (which blew my mind... I got over 100 points less on the reading and I like that activity much more).

But meanwhile math is evil, unless it's geometry which involves pretty shapes. Thank you.

my SAT scores reflect fairly accurately my abilities and interest in the two tested areas:

Math: 470
Verbal: 730


Go fig.

MIne were about even though I'm much more of a verbal person.

Math: 670

Verbal: 660

What I think is interesting is what would happen if I took them again today. MY math score would plummet I think, but verbal would probably stay the same or improve. As you go on in life your command of the language just improves, I think. But unless your later life actually involves math, that's going to atrophy. But you don't just...stop using language. :)

mine were dead even, 610 on each� :D

I smell a poll. :)

Though, I'm too lazy to write it and figure out where to cut score ranges.

I'm assuming that a SAT is an american thing ;)

Yeah...standardized test thing. I think it stands for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Most folks need to take it to get into colleges. Highest scores for verbal and math are 800 each, so a perfect score is 1600 total.

It used to stand for that, now it stands for Scholastic Assessment Test. They hardly use that though. I was going through the Educational Testing Services Site and that of the College Board and in almost every case they simply refer to it as the SAT. The only place I found what it stood for was in the alphabetical listing of all the test that ETS give where it says "Scholastic Assessment Test(s) - See SATS.

It was felt that the tests don't measure aptitude but rather a mixture of aptitude plus training so the old name was inaccurate.

I used to work for Princeton Review and more recently I had a friend that worked for the College Board. I used to help her with her research and writing her reports so I've had a lot of exposure to this.

actually, i dont think most people took the SAT. not in ohio anyway. most people just take the ACT. forget what i got on that. like 24 or 27 or something.

I never heard of the ACT back in school. It just wasn't a factor for us, at least as far as I knew. But *everyone* took the SATs.

I loved the darn things. I LOVE tests like that. I was so disappointed when I overslept and didn't get to take them again senior year.

Around here everyone takes the ACTs and doesnt bother with the SATs my mom made me take them, though, which i didnt mind, because i loved them too :)

The SATs dominates the coasts while the middle of the US takes the ACTS.