Math sucks fun or not?

[melkatafan]

Do you pass Math or even get good grades at math? How do you manage to do so? ;D

 

[jw4833]

I'm in my last year of college, and I had to take a Statistics course last term, and it was horrible that I just focused on getting at least a C grade...However, things got so complicated that I had to get a math tutor which resulted me getting an A..its the last math I have to take for school..good riddance...lol

 

[gb2000ie]

Do you pass Math or even get good grades at math? How do you manage to do so? ;D

I did 2 years of math in university before dropping it to focus on Physics & CS, and it's no different to any other subject. You get good marks by studying hard, and asking questions when you don't understand something. It's not magic!

B.

 

[Tjerk12]

Mathematics offers you a toolkit, filled with tools which allow you to solve complicated problems. It are not the tools that give pleasure, but its use is what matters. In education often Mathematics is presented as an end in itself. That is a pity, because it ruins the fun. I know people who worship twisters and spanners. I think it is a lot more fun to use them.

 

[RuG]

in primary school and junior high i excelled math big time. however, when high school came, i started to dislike math. i had serious troubles in getting passing grade of 55 and at one point i had to beg my math teacher who failed me to give me second chance by doing extra home work and practices. i never knew what happened with my brain because i excelled in physics which is also related to math. go figure! hahahahaha

i took geometry and discrete math, i took calculus, i took functions and relations, it all ended up disastrous. LOL

 

[Bixel]

I don't like math but I do a little above average in terms of grades.

 

[yummycola]

I recently graduated with a BA in Statistics/Mathematics degree from Rutgers University, so yeah I like math. I like Applied Math rather than the theoretical side. Proofs are not fun.

 

[dummaque]

I've always been a dork, but there were certain topics of math that I actually quite liked in secondary school- Geometry in general (except proofs, which were ass), conic sections, trig proofs (which to me were like fun riddles), and some stuff in calculus, like related rate.

 

[brmstn69]

I always got straight A's in advanced math classes, until...

For some reason, I have absolutely no comprehension, whatsoever, of algebra...

 

[Behrluvr]

If you study math long enough you reach a point where an equation is as beautiful as a painting or a great piece of music. THere's something mystical about the way this complex thing , using the rigid rules of mathmatics, eventually reduces down to a simple thing.

You start to wonder , or at least I do, how can this thing possibly be built into the structure of the universe? How can irrational numbers like pi or e exist? It seems highly artificial yet its a fundamental part of nature. When you move around in advanced math/physics, it sometimes seems like you touch the hand of God.

The area of mathmatics which truly turned me on was differential equations. I was fascinated by the way everything falls into place when solving these babies. It goes beyond being great puzzles and becomes art. Whats a killer though is that you realize that you are looking at the undelying foundation of the universe. These scratchings on paper are symbolic representations of our existance/creation and our universe.

 

[Tjerk12]

If you study math long enough you reach a point where an equation is as beautiful as a painting or a great piece of music. THere's something mystical about the way this complex thing , using the rigid rules of mathmatics, eventually reduces down to a simple thing.

You start to wonder , or at least I do, how can this thing possibly be built into the structure of the universe? How can irrational numbers like pi or e exist? It seems highly artificial yet its a fundamental part of nature. When you move around in advanced math/physics, it sometimes seems like you touch the hand of God.

The area of mathmatics which truly turned me on was differential equations. I was fascinated by the way everything falls into place when solving these babies. It goes beyond being great puzzles and becomes art. Whats a killer though is that you realize that you are looking at the undelying foundation of the universe. These scratchings on paper are symbolic representations of our existance/creation and our universe.

I agree with you. Especially by differential equations of Mathematical Physics, where you enter more than three dimensions. It feels mysterious to calculate for example in the fifth dimension, having no possibility to imagine what it is, but finally the answer appears to be true when you check it in the formula.

 

[gb2000ie]

If you study math long enough you reach a point where an equation is as beautiful as a painting or a great piece of music. THere's something mystical about the way this complex thing , using the rigid rules of mathmatics, eventually reduces down to a simple thing.

You start to wonder , or at least I do, how can this thing possibly be built into the structure of the universe? How can irrational numbers like pi or e exist? It seems highly artificial yet its a fundamental part of nature. When you move around in advanced math/physics, it sometimes seems like you touch the hand of God.

The area of mathmatics which truly turned me on was differential equations. I was fascinated by the way everything falls into place when solving these babies. It goes beyond being great puzzles and becomes art. Whats a killer though is that you realize that you are looking at the undelying foundation of the universe. These scratchings on paper are symbolic representations of our existance/creation and our universe.

Very well said!

It really is almost mystical how well math describes the universe - I mean, why should the universe agree so well with math? Why should it be full of simple things like inverse square laws?

I think one of the most beautiful moments in my physcis education was when I realise the massive and immense implications of the very simple and very famous equation:

e=mc^2

So simple, so easy to write down, so iconic, and yet such mind-blowing implications!

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

I agree with you. Especially by differential equations of Mathematical Physics, where you enter more than three dimensions. It feels mysterious to calculate for example in the fifth dimension, having no possibility to imagine what it is, but finally the answer appears to be true when you check it in the formula.

The example I always think of for esoteric stuff like this is imaginary numbers and electromagnetism. You'd imagine that something called 'imaginary' could have no practical application in our universe, and yet imaginary numbers allow us to understand the strange relationship between electricity and magnetism!

B.

 

[8oclockcoffee]

I always got top marks in Mathematics, both in classes and on standardized tests (SAT, AP Calculus exam, etc). I never studied, it was just a subject that came easily to me, but I always found it dreadfully boring. I don't really remember much Calculus anymore (it's been over 2 decades), but algebra comes as naturally still as addition and subtraction. I have a Calc text around somewhere, perhaps I'll look for it and see how quickly it comes back. I'm sure it will still bore me, however!

 

[hawtsean]

.............at one point i had to beg my math teacher who failed me to give me second chance by doing extra home work and practices. i never knew what happened with my brain because i excelled in physics which is also related to math. go figure! hahahahaha

That happens more than you might realize. For whatever the reason, the application of math rules seems to leave some people cold and bored and in the dark - whereas applied sciences are thrilling and totally absorbing without the least problem in succeeding at them. Ask me, I've lived with this my whole life. I can grasp (and have done many times) very complex science and did so to work with audio and video engineering and production - something I did well and enjoyed for a number of years. Yet trying to learn the formulae for determining some of the circuit values - YUCKK!

 

[brmstn69]

If you study math long enough you reach a point where an equation is as beautiful as a painting or a great piece of music. THere's something mystical about the way this complex thing , using the rigid rules of mathmatics, eventually reduces down to a simple thing.

You start to wonder , or at least I do, how can this thing possibly be built into the structure of the universe? How can irrational numbers like pi or e exist? It seems highly artificial yet its a fundamental part of nature. When you move around in advanced math/physics, it sometimes seems like you touch the hand of God.

The area of mathmatics which truly turned me on was differential equations. I was fascinated by the way everything falls into place when solving these babies. It goes beyond being great puzzles and becomes art. Whats a killer though is that you realize that you are looking at the undelying foundation of the universe. These scratchings on paper are symbolic representations of our existance/creation and our universe.

Gee... Who do you remind me of...

 

[xenos]

In high school I did Algebra, Advanced Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. It was a Jesuit college prep high school. The basketball coach taught both basic and advanced algebra. The football coach taught Latin. It was that kind of joint. (And the football team had four straight years of wins. None of the guys I graduated with had seen the team lose in their 4 years in high school.) They didn't offer much fluff. e.g. Sociology was the equivalent of Rocks for Jocks Geology courses for college athletes. It was a course for those who just couldn't cut it in math, science, languages, etc.)

Alg. was OK. Geometry was easy but boring at the time. (The only time we had fun in Geom. was when we were sent outside to find the height of a telephone pole by measuring its shadow. I think the first time I tried, the pole it came out to be somewhere around 45 stories tall.) Similarly, the first time I tried to use triangulation during a course in oceanography, I calculated our boat was somewhere in downtown Los Angeles instead of on the Pacific Ocean northwest of Dana Point, CA. I get the concepts in math. It's the actual calculations that do me in.

Trig. nearly did me in. I think it was the only D I ever got outside of PE. BUT when it came to taking the required math course in university, I aced it. Got an A without breaking a sweat, probably the easiest A I ever got outside of music appreciation. Thank you, My Wise and Patient High School Teachers.

 

[HilaryDuff]

I hate math and forever will.

 

[hawtsean]

As mentioned in my earlier post, I needed some math to do the stuff I was hired to do. However, playing with formulae involving Kirchoff's Law, vector AC sine wave analysis, EM wave propagation and related stuff made my head hurt.

My hat's always been off to you dudes who excel in the physics of electronics and can wield the math like a hungry man uses a fork and knife.

 

[etilit]

i thought there were to be no math questions on this forum