EFF MATH!!

[shakermaker113]

The rules of mathematics are the same regardless of where you are or what culture you're from or how you write it down. It's one of the core elements of being.

it bothers me when people say that. math is just a language. it's a very practical language, but still just a language. math is not god.

[TomAz]

math is just a language. it's a very practical language, but still just a language.

This is falsehood. You do not grasp the concept and have come up with this rationalization to justify yourself.

[M Sparks]

Math is the most useful thing taught in public schools, along with basic language skills.

Although, I will admit, I don't understand the focus on Algebra. Geometry is far more useful in the real world, but it often isn't required.

[All Your Base]

Way back in the 1800s when I was in school...

Algebra/Trig/Calc = interesting puzzles.

Statistics/Analysis = the fucking devil.

[marooko]

i hate algebra. geometry and trigonometry, fuck yeah.

[marooko]

Way back in the 1800s when I was in school...

Algebra/Trig/Calc = interesting puzzles.

Statistics/Analysis = the fucking devil.

yay for statics and strengths of materials. fucking engineers. your post reminded me of that shit. wasnt so much hard, just took so much fucking time.

[BlackSwan]

Math is beauty. Math is purity. Math is not subject to interpretation; it is not a social construct; it just is. The rules of mathematics are the same regardless of where you are or what culture you're from or how you write it down. It's one of the core elements of being.

Would you say that math is truth?

[Jon Blazed]

You should just think of every number as a dick. I'm sure you love to multiply dicks all day long.

[All Your Base]

Would you say that math is truth?

There's no greater truth in the universe, so yeah. I guess so.

[TomAz]

Math is a truth.

[locachica73]

I hated math in junior high, then I had one teacher that somehow flipped the switch for me and I got it, finally, after years of failing the subject. Suddenly I became a math tutor to other kids and got straight A's. Then they put me in geometry, I missed 3 days of class due to being sick and came back fucking lost and failed. In college I again did great in math, helped other kids and got straight A's. Then I took accounting, thinking well I am good in math I should rock this. Yeah, not so much. It is hard to retrain your brain to left and right. But your right, there isn't much use for math in adulthood unless your figuring out a sale or selling dope. Then fractions and percentages come in handy.

[TomAz]

see i think loca's on to something.


People who say they "hate math" don't really hate math. Saying you hate math is like saying you hate logical thinking. What people really hate is the way math is taught. Which is understandable I think.

[Monklish]

Some people really do hate logical thinking though, Tom.


We call these people asshats.

[TomAz]

Also I think math is very important in everyday life, especially living in a democracy. Learning math as a kid gives one a better intuitive grasp of numbers as an adult. So when politicians start throwing around statistics it's easier to see which ones make sense and which ones are just loaded bullshit.

example:
from this article:

('numeracy' is the word used to mean mathematical competence, akin to 'literacy' in reading and writing).

The relentless quantification of society continues unabated. The tendency to reduce complex information to a few numbers is overwhelming--in health care, in social policy, in political analysis, in education. ... Although the widespread availability of data should enrich public discourse, inevitable over-simplifications and misinterpretations may ultimately cheapen it. ... Instead of enhancing Jeffersonian democracy, limited numeracy can easily shift the balance to a technocracy.

Innumeracy hurts in other ways as well. For example, public policy issues may increasingly move beyond the intellectual grasp of citizens who lack appropriate skills in quantitative reasoning. Innumeracy encourages the view that all opinions are equally valid, that whenever there is disagreement the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Innumeracy thus becomes another means of disenfranchisement: by reinforcing the idea that truth is relative and unknowable, people with the least defenses against charlatans will be most vulnerable.

[shakermaker113]

This is falsehood. You do not grasp the concept and have come up with this rationalization to justify yourself.

I have a degree in math dude. I grasp the concept just fine.

[TomAz]

Then I don't know how you could think it's "just a language". 2+2=4 in any language and any culture. the way you write it is a language, yes, but the fact of it is not.

[M Sparks]

I substitute teach every once in a while. I think a major problem is that the more math aptitude you have, the harder it is to teach or explain. For relatively simple math, I rarely use any sort of process...I just look at it an the answer is obvious. It's like saying "what color is this?"

But then, when I'm trying to explain it to someone, it's frustrating to walk them through it. It gets even weirder with very young kids...it's impossible for me to explain to a 6 year old why 2 + 2 is not 22.

I understand people's frustrations with higher math functions, but for basic functions, percentages, ect...it's just hard-wired into my brain and I'm baffled by people who aren't built the same way.

I also like math as a subject because it's absolute. If I'm wrong, it's because I'm wrong. I used to go nuts in Lit classes, where the grading is subjective. If I experience a piece of art differently than the teacher, that shouldn't make me "wrong" when it comes to an essay test.

[Monklish]

Really? It's impossible for you to explain that? Have you ever considered showing them four apples?

Here's my problem with math--teachers are fucking morons.

[All Your Base]

Really? It's impossible for you to explain that? Have you ever considered showing them four apples?

Here's my problem with math--teachers are fucking morons.

DING!

<steps on soapbox>
One of the big problems with our public education system is that pretty much ANY teacher can eventually get tenured, whether or not they are any good at teaching.

If I wasn't a good System Engineer, I'd have been laid off in one of the many rounds of layoffs we've had over the years.

That is a problem.
<steps down>

[locachica73]

Really? It's impossible for you to explain that? Have you ever considered showing them four apples?

Here's my problem with math--teachers are fucking morons.

I agree, and most teachers, especially older teachers, fucking hate kids. My daughter had a huge problem with one of her teachers and kept getting in trouble, I finally went to meet with the guy and he was the biggest douche bag I have ever met. He was about 110 years old, hated all kids, couldn't even remember my childs name and had her confused with other students. I think most teachers need to retire after teaching for 10 years because they all inevitably come to hate kids.

[PotVsKtl]

I have a degree in math dude. I grasp the concept just fine.

What sort of goon are you? Why the fuck do you think we always talk to aliens in mathematical concepts? You should go get a degree in being bad at understanding things you have degrees in, and then not understand that degree.

[Aurgasm]

That's what I'm banking on. Even though print journalism is going the way of the dodo.

Good writing will always be valuable... even if the traditional medium disappears. its really sad though..

[shakermaker113]

Then I don't know how you could think it's "just a language". 2+2=4 in any language and any culture. the way you write it is a language, yes, but the fact of it is not.

it's just our way of describing relationships between things. it doesn't change those relationships, neither does it define them. it just describes them. it is a language. sometimes we find mathematics is wrong and have to correct it.

to say that those things mathematics describes exist the same regardles of language and culture is true, but it's not a very consequential statement. a lot of things exist independent of us.

What sort of goon are you? Why the fuck do you think we always talk to aliens in mathematical concepts? You should go get a degree in being bad at understanding things you have degrees in, and then not understand that degree.

I'm a goon who doesn't fucking talk to aliens.

[menikmati]

irony

[TomAz]

it's just our way of describing relationships between things. it doesn't change those relationships, neither does it define them. it just describes them. it is a language. sometimes we find mathematics is wrong and have to correct it.

If there were no things, if there was nothingness instead of being, mathematics would still exist and still be true. And we don't correct mathematics, we correct our understanding of it.

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

I just never had great math teachers...and what fucked me up was going from public to private...

[Monklish]

If there was nothingness there would still be math? Sorry, that's silly.

[Monklish]

At the end of the day, 2 + 2 = 4 only means anything if you first have an agreed understand of what "2," "+," "=," and "4" means. The operations may be, theoretically, truths (at least in as far as we've been able to determine in this subjective perception of the world), but those operations have no meaning without a common base of terminology. Other languages are just vastly more complicated with a greater degree of nuance and variation.

[BlackSwan]

At the most basic level, math, like everything else, is still dependent on the degree to which humans can accurately perceive existence around them.

[locachica73]

I just never had great math teachers...and what fucked me up was going from public to private...

My one great math teacher was 8th grade, he got fired halfway through the year for showing us pictures of his summer trip to Israel. They fired him for preaching religion in school. He just showed us some fucking slides. I hated school after that.